There were a couple of milestones I had been meaning to blog about this October, and here we are, hours away from November, so I figured I'd better get to it. Forgive my absence from the internet, but my three-year-old is, well, three, and has decided to turn into a monster every time I open my laptop and attempt to check my email or write anything. If I don't get back to you, do not take it personally. If it's important, please email me again. I have to believe that my life won't always be this way... otherwise my head will break.

So the first milestone is that our sweet cat Patti is ten years old this month. We don't know her exact birthday, so we've just always had kind of a general month of Patti celebrations each October. She's been such a great cat, and we feel so lucky to have her around. She says "meh" instead of meowing, and still has unexpected bursts of silliness like chasing her tail in the hallway, or just now when I looked over to see her jumping with both front paws up in the air to catch a bug in the kitchen.

The second milestone is that October 2010 marks four years that I've been pregnant, nursing, or both. Yep. Some women wait several years between pregnancies, and very few nurse up until the next pregnancy, so I feel like I'm in some kind of club for moms who just get all their fertility done in one straight shot. (Incidentally, Jack's mom also belongs to this club, and I suppose my mom does too since she only had me.) I'm 98% sure that we're done having kids, even though it took me several months to decide that. I know I'll have baby pangs at some point in the future; we'll just have to see how loud they are. But two feels good. Two brothers against the world. It means saying goodbye to the hope of having a daughter someday, but I'm becoming more okay with that as time goes by and I grow into my role as Mom of Two Boys.

I know a lot of you have been wondering about the Halloween costumes this year, so here they are. I found Dean's monkey costume last year when he was still in utero, and since the best costume to go with a monkey was already done last year, I asked Kent if he would like to dress up as a tree. He was super-excited. Thank goodness, because that was my one idea. I bought a leaf garland to cut up, then intertwined the leaves with florist wire to make a leafy hat and some wristbands. Kent helped me glue the rest of the leaves to a green t-shirt, and some brown pants and brown shoes finished off the look. Most people have gotten it when they've seen him, though a few weirdos have asked if he's the Jolly Green Giant or a dragon or something. Apparently he had been telling everyone at school about his costume all week, so his teachers were thrilled to see it at the fall festival on Friday. I love seeing my son's oddball costumes among all the princesses, animals, bugs, and superheroes, but I am absolutely sure that this was the last year I got to pick his costume. We'll just have to wait and see what the opinionated Kent of the Future will choose. Hopefully something I can make. I get such a kick out of making costumes.


Dean, Kent, and cousin Blythe (Morgan's little girl, they were in town last weekend): trying to get a good photo of all three of them was interesting. Blythe trying to eat Kent's costume while Dean looks off in the distance pretty much encapsulates the experience.


Dean and Blythe, just 6 weeks apart and destined to be buddies.


Kent's alternate costume, courtesy of Chick-Fil-A family nights, wherein they made a different part of the costume each week and then had a pirate party this past week.


Today's caramel apples, shared with the friends we went trick-or-treating with.


Our jack-o-lantern, which Kent insisted should be "silly" and not "scary". Before I added the eyebrows, Kent got mad at me and told me the eyes were too scary, like maybe I hadn't been paying attention to his directions. I'm just not artistic enough to get "silly" right on the first try. At least he agreed that the eyebrows helped.

Labels: craftiness, Dean, family, holidays, Kent, photography

• posted by erica 10/31/2010 09:32:00 PM
•  4 comments

I whipped up a skirt on Saturday night that I've been dreaming about for weeks. I got a wonderful book from my stepsister last year called Sewing Green, with a lot of creative ideas for repurposing old things into new ones. One of the most intriguing ideas was making a skirt from a pillowcase, using the pillowcase's finished edge as the hemline. I'm sized out of fitting a pillowcase over my hips by about 2 inches, but smaller people could get away with it. Anyway, we have these sheets that we got for a wedding gift, all white with a beautiful embroidered eyelet border. They got a few small stains on them several years ago, and they're not as soft as some of our other sheets, so they've been put away for a while, but once I started thinking about making a skirt, I couldn’t get that gorgeous embroidery out of my head. So instead of a pillowcase, I used the bedsheet instead. It couldn't have been simpler: cutting a rectangle (hips plus 3" x desired length plus 1.5"), sewing it up the side to make a tube, then making an elastic casing and finishing the whole thing up. It was literally three seams. It took me more time to iron and cut the fabric than it took to sew, and the project was made even easier by Jack volunteering to take the boys to the library so I could get it done before dinner. It's not the most elegant skirt since it's just straight with an elastic waist, and since it's white and I didn't bother with a lining, I had to dig my old slip (not seen in about five years) out of the back of the closet. But it's comfy, and it was worth it anyway.


I just love the hemline of this skirt right above my boots. Every woman needs some boots to wear once in a while.

I've also pulled out my grandmother's scrapaholic quilt to work on — remember it from way back two years ago?? Well, I got it from her when I was still working on a dissertation, so I sewed a border on, basted it together with the batting and backing, then rolled it up and stuck it in a box. It sat in the box through dissertation, then dissertation abandonment was quickly followed by pregnancy, and a newborn... and all of those things precluded working seriously on a quilt. When Kent started school, I was determined to pull it out and begin quilting it, but I looked at it again and realized it would still take me years to hand quilt it like I had been planning.

My grandmother taught me to hand quilt. It’s one of those passed-down skills that I’m so grateful to have — it makes me feel connected to generations of women in my family whom I never even met. Machine quilting is sort of unreliable since the stitching can come out a lot more easily, and there’s something about it that’s not quite visceral enough for me. I love my sewing machine, but I feel the need to finger the fabrics on a quilt like this. I didn't want to cop out and do it on a machine. I took a long look at the quilt after having a timely reminder about another option, and I tried to imagine it as a tied quilt. Tied quilts are doable. I sheepishly asked my grandmother if it was alright for me to tie it instead of hand quilting, because I wanted to finish it and let her enjoy her handiwork. She worried that it was going to be a burden to me, but I assured her it wasn't, that I was thrilled to be able to do it. How could I not LOVE this opportunity? I mean, it's her life in fabric. Every scrap means something to her, either because she made something from it like an article of clothing or a quilt for one of us, or because it came from the stash of a friend, or a sister who recently passed away. As I've been tying the little knots of purple wool that seem to pick up the purple in the quilt beautifully, I've reminisced and dreamed a little about what all of these different fabrics mean. Most have meanings I'll never know. Every 10 or 15 squares, I find one that instantly becomes my new favorite. There's a lot of: "Okay, that's my favorite. No wait, this one is DEFINITELY my favorite."

It's nice to pull my head up out of the water of childrearing for a minute so I can do this kind of work again.

Labels: craftiness, family, greening, photography

• posted by erica 9/27/2010 03:39:00 PM
•  5 comments

I'm pulling a pan of my grandmother's rolls out of the oven. They're delicious. This is the fifth or sixth time I've made them, but the first time when they've actually tasted right. When they taste right, I want to eat about five of them in one sitting.

That is all.

Labels: family, kitchen adventures

• posted by erica 7/26/2010 06:28:00 PM
•  0 comments

We took a trip to New Jersey a few weeks ago to visit my mom and a bunch of family who were also gathering there. The official reason for the trip was to celebrate my grandfather's 80.5 birthday, since his 80th was in January and we didn't get a chance to celebrate as a family then. His 80.5 was on July 4, which meant we were also gathered for Kent's birthday on July 3, plus the holiday festivities and fireworks.

We got there on a Thursday, settling in and hanging out with my grandparents who also arrived that day. The flight was pretty bumpy on the way down, and Kent ended up being sick right when we landed and he was thrown forward. I cleaned him off and changed his clothes without too much trouble, and Jack and I wondered why in the heck we can't seem to have a trip to visit my mom without Kent throwing up.

On Friday, we borrowed a car and drove down to Philly to visit our friends Lauren and Steve. Lauren (and Jeannette) had told me about a fabulous little play cafe in Chestnut Hill called The Little Treehouse, a sweet super-fun place that's almost just like the kid-friendly coffee shop I've been dreaming about.


I didn't remember to take any pictures of the actual play space, which took up about half the interior, or our amazing wood-fired pizza or coffee drinks... but the place was amazing. Here's just one aspect of the amazingness. Toys on the wall of the bathroom for the kids to play with while Mom goes to the potty. I have a difficult time keeping Kent in the bathroom with me sometimes, since he goes right away and then wants to leave before I'm done. Example: when I took my pregnancy test at Target last year and found out I was pregnant with Dean, Kent busted out of the handicapped stall before I had my pants up. I'll never forget that. So having something to keep him occupied was pretty ingenious.


We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling with Lauren and Steve, who gave Kent a card that we could turn into a cardboard airplane. There was much revelry throwing the airplane around their apartment. We also introduced Kent to a couple of different video games on the Nintendo Wii. He couldn't quite understand that his movements while holding the Wii remote were controlling what happened on the screen, but he thought bowling with 100 pins was pretty spectacular. Several of my friends in town, who have kids just a little older than Kent, have Wiis, and I've thought seriously about getting one sometime soon so that we can play games as a family. Perhaps it's in our future.



We also did a lot of Dean-gazing, because he's fun and very giggly.


We made a stop by the side of the road on the way back to NJ that evening, because Dean needed a break from the carseat. I snapped this picture of our reflection in the car's window.

Saturday was Kent's birthday, with a party and cake planned for the evening. My stepbrother Chris and his wife Cat had arrived from NC, my Aunt Mary and Uncle Jeff and two of their kids, Dave and Dan, had flown in from Colorado, and my stepsister Morgan, her husband Brian, and their baby daughter Blythe drove up from Baltimore on Saturday, so we had a pretty large crew. During the day, Mom and Bill took my little branch of the family to a carnival in town that Bill had some experience with as a Kiwanian. Mom, Kent, and I rode on the ferris wheel, which Kent always loves doing, and then Kent got to ride kiddie rides for the first time. He had a blast. He just kept grinning and smirking and then running around excitedly, telling us which thing he wanted to do next.
 
 
 
 


It was dang hot, so Dean and I bought a bottle of water and chilled in the shade where we could still see Kent.


Here's Kent getting a fun shoulder ride from Bill.


After Kent's nap, the birthday festivities got going, which included swimming, grilling out, and Kent's birthday cake, which I decorated earlier in the day to his specifications. He had told me he wanted a space shuttle on his cake, so I ran with it, and this is what I ended up with:


Several people have been confused by the numbers at the bottom, thinking that perhaps Kent was turning 32, but it says "3 2 1!" for anyone who can't read frosting.

On Sunday, we had a sort of lazy morning at Mom's house, while Mom, Bill, and my grandparents went to church. Ordinarily, we would go with them, but we knew that between Kent being in an unfamiliar church (and consequently not wanting to go to the nursery), and the up-and-down dance we usually do with Dean at our own church, we wouldn't get much out of the service, so we sat it out this time and hoped for a day in the future when it'll be easier to tag along. After church, we all went to a diner for brunch/lunch, and I got a Greek-style chicken wrap with tzatziki sauce, something I'd been craving. It was perfect. I don't quite remember what anyone else ate because I was so happy eating my own food. I think Kent had part of a meatball and some spaghetti, plus the chocolate pudding that came with his meal. It's funny, I read a quote recently about having realistic expectations while on vacation, and the example the author cited was that if your child is a picky eater at home, s/he is going to be a picky eater on vacation. Um, yes.



After the meal, Jack and Brian found themselves swaying side by side with their respective babies, so everyone turned to look and smile, and then Dave and Dan decided they ought to get in on the swaying, so Dan jumped into Dave's arms and gave us all a good laugh.



Back at home, Morgan and I took about 100 pictures of Blythe and Dean together in their Fourth of July outfits. What a couple of cuties. They're a month and a half apart, destined to be great friends as they get older. Dean hadn't quite developed all his sitting up muscles yet, so he kept falling over and we kept propping him back up next to her.


Brian caught a snooze later with Blythe and Mom and Bill's cat, Barnaby.


And my favorite part of Sunday was a little personal tribute to my grandfather: homemade pretzels. He and I made these all the time when I was a kid (though admittedly I didn't drink beer with them back then... I didn't know what I was missing). I have so many memories revolving around those pretzels. There was greasing the pan with Crisco, then having to wash it off my hands while my grandfather turned up the water temperature and I complained repeatedly that it was too hot. There were all the times I tried to make letters for everyone in my family instead of the classic pretzel shape, and my grandfather was a terrific sport and tried to keep Ms, Es, and Js together in the water bath and on the pan so that the letters would stay intact. And there was the time that we couldn't find the recipe (in the days before looking things up on the internet), and we tried to recreate the recipe from memory. I think my grandfather looked at it as a teachable moment, but I was too young to be much help.


Here's Kent munching on his pretzel by the pool. One of my favorite things about having kids is passing on traditions to them that have already brought me so much joy.

Here are some more pool pictures from throughout the weekend:






On Monday, Dave and Dan did a lot of crazy diving where they attempted to dive under each other, do high-fives on the way into the water, etc. I took a lot of pictures and a couple of short movies, and I thought I was going to be calling the collection "How Dave and Dan Ended Up in the Emergency Room." But somehow they managed not to injure each other, except one time that I heard Dave say, "You poked me in the eye!" Those two are hilarious. I wish we all lived closer.


All the diving board action seems to have inspired Kent to finally jump into our arms in the pool, and he dazzled us with his newfound adventurous spirit in the water.


Mom read a lot of books with Kent. I just love watching my mom bond with my kiddo.


At some point in the weekend, Chris and Cat posed for me to take a quick picture in Mom and Bill's kitchen. I was terrible about taking lots of pictures of everyone, so when I realized I didn't have any of them, I had to fix it.


Mom has lived in NJ for (almost?) three years now, and in that short time, I have developed a favorite tradition: walking to the little farm stand on the main road, shopping for produce, and then eating a cider doughnut and petting the goats. Here are Jack and Kent sharing a doughnut in the sun. Not much beats a doughnut enjoyed with the people you love most.

Inevitably, we had to go home. It was one of the few trips I've taken where I really didn't feel ready to leave. However, the temperatures in NJ were topping 100 that Tuesday, and when we got back to New Orleans, it was a pleasant 80 degrees. Talk about a schema breaking.

As we boarded the plane, the very eager flight attendant offered to let Kent go into the cockpit, and the pilots were all over him and had a great time with him while I went to grab the camera.


The pilot insisted on posing Mike the Tiger Kitty as well, and I was cracking up at all of them. I've said many times that I wish I could always fly Southwest because the staff is so great, but Continental gave them a run for their money this time.


And here's our wide-eyed baby enjoying the flight home.

The web of family was tightened a bit over this weekend, strengthening our bond across the vast country where we've been scattered. Thank goodness for the internet, and air travel.

Labels: Dean, family, Freude, holidays, Kent, kitchen adventures, Philly, photography, travel

• posted by erica 7/20/2010 01:29:00 PM
•  1 comments

I'm lying back in the recliner in my living room, sleeping Dean strapped to my chest in the Moby wrap, looking out the sliding glass door to the backyard. In my backyard are Kent, along with not one, but two grandmothers, blowing bubbles and running around in the sun. It's about 40 degrees out there, so I'm sure they're freezing their butts off, but to me it just looks sunny and cheery. A lot of giggles and squeals are making their way inside. This very sleepy but happy mama feels the joy radiating from those three. I'm feeling mostly like myself these days, but it's still wonderful to tap into the collective energy of others while I rest with my baby.

Since they have a couple of days' worth of overlap, I'm reminded of how lucky we are to have in-laws who not only get along but who actually enjoy each other's company. They respect each other. There's no competition, no one-upping, no passive aggression or bickering. I'm blessed in so many ways. My mom has been here for a wonderful week and is leaving tomorrow, and Jack's mom got here yesterday and will be here for another almost two weeks before she heads back to Virginia (with Jack's dad coming for the last couple of days of her visit).

Also, my mom has been cleaning like a mad woman. Give that woman an award for awesomeness.

After Kent was born, I remember needing the grandparent time and help desperately so that I could recover. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that I was in shock after his birth, trying to keep my head above water while I learned to do everything for a baby and learned how to survive emotionally without any time to myself to recharge. I figured out how to be a mom, and eventually I felt like I was actually pretty good at it, but it felt crazy for a while. I felt crazy. This time, it doesn't feel crazy. I've recovered physically. I know how to take care of a newborn and have been so pleased that it's come back to me quickly. And so far, Dean sleeps a lot. Not by himself, mind you, but he'll sleep for hours in the Moby or in our arms, and it doesn't feel exhausting at all, just sweet. More sleep would be nice, but the lack of sleep, just like everything else, is also familiar and doesn't feel like a shock to my system either. The hardest part is meeting Kent's emotional needs while wearing a baby, something the grandmothers are a *huge* help with. I feel like my time with them here is giving me a chance to strategize about how I'm going to accomplish everything after they leave. Like how to get food on the table and then get through a meal. Or how to discipline Kent from across the room or across the house while Dean is nursing. Or how I'm going to finish Kent's potty training by the time he starts school in August. Still not sure about that one.

The blessings are many. I'm very rich.

Labels: Dean, family, Freude, Kent, SAHM

• posted by erica 2/15/2010 05:22:00 PM
•  2 comments

After making Kent's Christmas pants last year, I feel that I'm comfortable enough with sewing baby pants to do them for other people, so there are a bunch of upcoming winter babies who will be wearing pants made by me.

I made some Christmas pants for Morgan's baby girl, who's due just before Christmas, out of the last scraps of fabric leftover from when I had made Kent's pants. Kent's had an elastic waist, because I could measure him and make sure they were going to be the right size, but since newborns are fairly unpredictable in terms of size (and, uh, everything else?), I figured a drawstring with a cute ribbon was the way to go. I also found a nice pattern for booties that includes a ribbed cuff to help them stay on, so I've been knitting these up for lots of babies as well.

I made these for Morgan's baby before they found out they're having a girl, but Christmas flannel and red booties can transcend gender, I think.

A friend from my AP group in town is having a little girl in October, and we had a baby shower for her yesterday. She also got a pair of red booties before she found out the gender, and I decided to make some pants for the baby shower. I found two excellent flannels — once I finally found the freakin' flannel section in the fabric store — one with giraffes that had about 3/4 of a yard left on the bolt, and a light green with tiny polka dots of various pastel colors. I'm in love with both of these fabrics. Our baby may get pants made out of one or both of them, since I have a lot left.

I've made a paper pattern for this particular size, which I hope is roughly 0-3 months, so that I won't have to keep tracing the same pair of Kent's pants over and over. It's so simple to make them, even with button holes and a drawstring, and nothing much seems sweeter than snuggling up with a new baby who's dressed in soft flannel.

I wanted to get a book for my friend's daughter as well, and since she already has a son who's almost 3 and has a huge collection of books, I figured I'd look for something with a female protagonist in hopes that they wouldn't already have it. My friend is not a girly girl and never has been, so I knew that I was looking for a strong, creative, smart main character, preferably one who was not dressed in all pink or a ballerina costume. You get the idea. I pored over a lot of picture books in Barnes & Noble before I fell head over heels in love with Ladybug Girl, the first in a series of books by Jacky Davis and David Soman. This heroine is perfectly awesome, and she even has an older brother, just like my friend's little girl has. I adore her and would highly recommend this book to others (Heather and AB, you guys in particular!).

Ahh, book love. And sewing love. And babies. Yum.

Labels: craftiness, family, photography, what to read

• posted by erica 8/27/2009 06:47:00 PM
•  2 comments

The Jersey shore! This was Kent's first trip to the beach, and we all had a marvelous time.

Full of cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs, Mom, Bill, Kent, and I set out from their house to pick up Jack at the Newark airport (yay for seeing Daddy!) and then headed down to Manasquan on the Jersey shore where Bill's dad has a beach house. We met Morgan and Brian there, so I got to see the beginnings of Morgan's baby bump — she's having a little girl at Christmas, so we're sharing a lot of our pregnancy time, just like Joanna and I got to do when I was pregnant with Kent and she was pregnant with Travis. It's quite exciting to have cousins who'll be so close to the same age, especially if Jack and I can ever figure out how to live closer to said cousins.

After meeting up at the beach house, we all headed out to find a lunch place, hoping to happen upon some good, fresh seafood. We found a spot that had a seafood counter as well as sit-down restaurant service, and the food was good. Some of it was excellent. I had a crab cake sandwich, which was a fabulous crab cake in between two cold slices of store-bought bread, so I peeled the bread off and just ate the crab cake, and it suited me just fine. I also had some incredible lobster bisque that I can't stop thinking about; I've been in a serious seafood soup mood ever since, leading me to wonder if maybe it's time for me to learn how to make shrimp and corn soup or some sort of bisque-y concoction. Anyway, after our lunch, we came back to the house to change, and then it was time to walk two blocks down to the lovely, yet very crowded, beach.

We went swimming first, easing into the ocean and then getting all the way past the breaking waves to where the ocean was lulling and peaceful. It was overcast, warm but not hot, so the water mostly felt cold and wasn't quite as refreshing as it is on a super-hot day. After a big accidental gulp of ocean water, Kent made a rather sour face and stuck out his tongue, then told us that he wanted "different water," as if to say, "Can't you guys do something about all of this salt??" He nevertheless had a really fun time holding onto us as we jumped over the waves, though when he started to turn purple, we decided it was probably a good time for him to get back on the beach. Jack took him to dry off and play in the sand, and I stayed in the water with Mom and Bill a little while longer, floating and relaxing until I started to feel cold as well.

Kent was very taken with the sand and had an excellent time rolling around, digging in it, and generally absorbing it into every crevice of his body. He and Bill dug around in the sand a bit, basically amounting to Kent smashing all of Bill's attempts at a sandcastle, and Kent finally agreeing to be buried in the sand, only to remove himself a few seconds later. It was pretty fun to watch. My mom's favorite part was watching Kent lie down face-down, then drop sand onto his own back and down his diaper. This necessitated a full strip down to the bare bottom when it was time for us to leave — Jack carried a very naked little Kent over to the outdoor shower, hosed him off as best he could, then carried him back to a dry spot where he could get clothed again. Kent also had a shower back at the beach house, but he still had sand in his hair and his ears, even the next morning. Sigh. The beach. I didn't mind, though. He loved all of it.


Bill and Jack attempt to bury Kent in the sand.


Bill and Mom, after Bill buried himself in the sand


Kent decides he wants to be just like Aunt Morgan and Uncle Brian


Kent, with sand

We headed back to the house after a while and had an evening of eating, grilling, and more eating, and except for the part where Jack accidentally ate some clams in a dip he thought was onion dip, everything was excellent. I did corn on the cob on the grill, and since there were about a dozen people eating, we had a ton of corn. We had to do two batches, each of which covered the whole grill, but even though it was a monster to prepare, it was still grilled corn, so it was delicious. The lightning bugs came out, and Kent and his newfound cousin-in-law William (age 8) had a lot of fun trying to chase them and pointing them out to us.

William was great with Kent; I really enjoy watching older kids who like to engage toddlers instead of just seeing them as an annoyance. William also introduced Kent to the hand-held video game experience, so we're expecting Kent to ask for his own game system any day now. I don't even know what the kids are playing on these days, but I know it's not the little green-and-white screen of the original Nintendo Game Boy, which is what I had growing up (and loved every minute of, by the way, especially since I had saved up my own money to buy it).

Much fun conversation and darkening sky later, we got into the car around 9 p.m. and headed back to Mom and Bill's house, a little less than 2 hours away. Mom rode with Morgan and Brian, who came back with us to spend the night, and Jack, Kent, and I rode back with Bill. Kent and I both fell asleep, and we all stumbled into bed when we got back. It was way past my bedtime, not to mention Kent's.

Next up: a visit from Lauren and Steeeeeeeeeee!

Labels: family, Kent, photography, travel

• posted by erica 8/23/2009 02:54:00 PM
•  2 comments