Cabin Boy (or, "Nursery Sneak Peak")

Hubs and I have been slowly piecing together our old guest bedroom to make a space for George Harrison's arrival. With less than 2 months (and the holiday season!) to go, it's definitely still a work in progress. But here are the tidbits I can share:

-- I don't do themes when it comes to kids' rooms. Or, hell, any room. You will not see recurring cartoon character/nautical/sports team motifs. I suppose Pottery Barn kids does make a mint on folks who like that kind of thing, but I don't want to inundate my poor son with a pre-planned "here's what you must like because you are a little boy" anything. We make a room we like that's functional, and kid can make changes when he's older and has some sort of preference. Rant over.

-- Any sort of strange cobbling of a "design concept" for this room is centered around a metal kitchen cart from Ikea. Photo below. Yup, it's aqua. Yup, it's actually going to be in his room and has an actual purpose.  And yup, I'm stoked it has wheels.

-- Of course we're re-using some of HD's old stuff (crib, rocking chair, etc).  That's just non-negotiable, old fashioned, good sense.

-- So I'm obviously unenthusiastic about themed stuffs in a baby's room. This naturally made finding baby bedding a joyful and completely simple task.  Apparently anything that's not themed for little boys is either red, pastel and/or navy blue, or white. Or some combination thereof. Thank God for buying a la carte pieces and putting together our own crib "set". Going with varying patterns in grey and aqua, below is a photo glimpse at what we've got.

-- I totally purchased a bitchin' black & white baby quilt with mustaches all over it.

-- Yes, we will throw a little pirate homage into the decor. Because obviously.

Cabin Fever (or, "Daylight Savings Is the Death of Me")

http://instagr.am/p/Rm_Fvzsz13/

I just typed out a full 4 paragraph post on my phone, and managed to lose it before posting.

I dislike my stupid out of date phone, I heartily loathe the Blogger app, and as the you can tell from my post title, I care very little for Daylight Savings.  and on the tech-hating side is posting pics as well, hence the Instagram link (my handle is dreadpiratemama; feel free to follow).  Long story now condensed a whole hell of a lot:

-- kids ages 0-7 are dictators who don't understand sleeping in, and don't roll with schedule changes very well

-- if you love "falling back" and this whole (now mythical to me) extra hour of sleep, you may want to consider never having children

-- HD made things way harder than normal by having her first real nightmare last night...inconsolable sobbing-turning-hiccuping kind of deal where she (very weird for her) insisted on getting in Mama & Daddy's bed

-- (aside from the 1st 2 months of HD's life) Hubs & I decided long ago that co-sleeping was not the best idea for for our family...last night just drove that notion home.  being 30 weeks pregnant shoved onto 1/4 of a queen bed with a furnace-level body of a 2 year old wedged against you will do that

-- daylight savings especially sucks when you're up so early that the beautiful early morning solace of Starbucks hasn't even opened yet

-- always press "save" when you type anything on a phone that likes to turn off at random

-- passing thanks to my own parents who let me bunk up with them when I had a nightmare -- I now fully feel your pain, and totally understand why you eventually pointed me to my brother's room instead

Within the Past Moon (or, "Recently")

May has been knocking the Dread Pirate household around something fierce.  It's mega allergy season, there's lots of plans & events to attend, and we've got a raging near-two-year-old on our hands.  Lots of "Noooooo!" or "This!  I mean, that!  No, this!" going on around here.  Little girl can't make up her mind 80% of the time, but dammit, it's going to be her way once she's made her decision.  And re-made it.  Throw in my new burning desire for reading biographies in bed, and the world suddenly has less time for writing.

So, we'll settle for pics of her being cute for now while I come up with some good non-terror stories to write next.  I'm behind on giving the details on the April AND May dates that Hubs and I had.  It's on the agenda, I swear.

Recent fascination with sticks as toys.  Taught her to say "wingardium leviosa!"

Contemplative.

This is HD attempting to heave me up to play with sticks,  rather than play photog.

The backyard is her favorite spot currently.

New song she requests every mealtime?  "I Wanna Hold Your Hand."  She's a big Beatles fan.

She also claims to identify most with Ringo, due to drumming and liking octopi.  I am so not even joking.

I feel like I will take this exact picture again in about 13 years time.  If Daddy = stoked, then HD = exasperated.

Ok, story time really looks more like this.

Waaaaay belated Easter pic, randomly enough.  She looks all posed any dressy and everything!

What a ham.

Ok, seriously.  My favorite person ever.

Portraits of a February, Thriceover (or, "Photo Project 3")

Welcome to another glimpse into daily life of the DP Mama!  We have photos from my once a day photo project at the ready, for Sunday Feb 12 - Monday Feb 20.  Let's have at it.  Explanations and daily topics are below the photos.  Please excuse the haphazard formatting.

• Inside Your Closet - a close up of some of my fave items.  You didn't really expect to get a full shot of my bedroom's designated disaster space, did you?
• Blue - HD, wearing blue henley and cardigan.  Whenever we put either of these items on her, she insists that she's "blue like Toodee."
• Heart - apropos topic, as it was Valentine's Day.  Hubs and I have never gone out on V-Day, not even in our dating days.  We've always stayed in to cook together.  We made sea scallops with bacon and spinach...the heart is the bacon bits :)
• Phone - HD's Fisher Price phone, courtesy of the Grand Admiral Madre.  It was hanging out in her room next to her fairy door.  [Sidenote, HD loves to knock on this door and try to ask her resident fairy, Elizabeth, to come out.  I've explained to her that Elizabeth is nocturnal, so HD inevitably whispers "sleeping" whenever Elizabeth does not appear during the day to the knocking.]
• Something New - Hubs and I decided that our big present to each other for the holidays would be to attempt some decorating in our bedroom.  You know, make it a space that isn't a haven for baby toys and story books with a bed in the middle.  So all the pillows in the photo below are new-ish, but the headboard is all of a week old.  West Elm is my fave, and totally affordable when they have sales and you cash out credit card points to get gift certificates to the store!
• Time - best depicted by my always full calendar work planner.
• Drink - on Saturday, Hubs went out with a friend.  Once HD was asleep, I enjoyed a bit of scotch.  Nom.
• Something You Hate to Do - potty training.  HD's totally cool with using her potty, but she's still not so adept at always telling us when she has to (but she's getting there!).  Which means to avoid accidents, we basically take her into the bathroom every chance we get.  DP Mama's lower back is not loving sitting on that cold tile to read Green Eggs & Ham for the 12th time that afternoon.
• Something You Ate - who says Panda Express doesn't have healthy options?

Portraits Revisited (or, "Photo Project 2")

And for week 2 of my one photo a day month...Here are the daily topics from Sunday, Feb 5 (kind of) through Saturday, Feb 11:

- 10am (I forgot to take the photo last Sunday!  Which would have probably been a pic of HD on the potty, so you're welcome on being spared that sight. You have Monday morning at my desk in the office instead.)
- dinner (awesome Hubs made a pizza with pine nuts when I wasn't feeling well.  And yes, he made the pizza.  No frozen ingredients whatsoever.  My hero.)
- button (courtesy of my cardigan and coat)
- sun (another make up pic from the next day. I was home with a sick HD on Wed so I snapped this shot of a building near my office on Thurs)
- front door (Hubs was home with sick HD this day,  and they came to meet me when I arrived home.  Nothing makes a working woman happier than that.)
- self portrait (note the tired/stressed tension in facial lines.  I was once an actress, but that's hard to fake with such accuracy unless you're Meryl.)
- makes you happy (napping kid definitely qualifies)

In case you can't tell, I'm having tons of fun playing with the photo effects, playing up various colors and lighting and faux old-timey qualities.  That's it for this week! More to come...

Portraits of a Certain Nature (or, "Photo Project 1")

I'm going forth with a photo challenge that I found on Pinterest. One photo for every day of February and each day is assigned a specific topic. I have to take them on my phone.  Since I'm Android rather than phone I'm using my really fun Vignette app to edit the pics. I'll post each week of this month. 

Enjoy the following snippets of my life.  From Feb 1 - Feb 4.

We have, totally not in order:
- my view today (from my cubicle at work)
- words (my current read)
- hands (HD's & mine)
- a stranger (from our day at the beach, more to come)

Festivities and Menageries (or, "Man, We Was Bizzay")

Crazy weekend!  A gorgeous 11/11/11 wedding at the lovely Ferry Building in SF (congrats Omar and Alex!).  An overnight stay with Hubs's bro and his wife, minus Miss HD (she had a sleepover with the grandparents).  An awesome morning back at the Ferry Building to brunch it up with them, adults-only style.  Blue Bottle coffee + oyster po' boy + pumpkin tamale = breakfast of piratical champions.  Hightailed it to the grandparents' home to retrieve the kid and have lunch, then swooped on down to the other end of the Bay to the Oakland Zoo with my bro and his wife.  We saw our entire local family in the course of 4 counties and 1 day.  *phew*

This attempt to climb into the animal pen happened at every single exhibit.

There are zebras in the background, I swear.

Hubs and I unknowingly in matching outfits for a family pic (we will NEVER do that to our child on purpose)

The Zoo taught us many lessons, including the following:
1)  We don't need a stroller as long as we're in a fenced-off kid-friendly area with no cars (bah, like those are hard to find!).  It was truly awesome to let HD run free. 
2)  Like Madeline, HD also says "Pooh, pooh" to the tiger in the zoo.  But she was very impressed with the spider monkeys (which made Hubs and I nostalgic for our Costa Rican honeymoon). 
3)  Giraffes do communicate with each other verbally, but their voices are on a low enough frequency that most humans don't hear it.  What?  I thought that was fascinating.
4)  My brother and I, unbeknownst to one another prior to this weekend, shared a secret nerdy passion for Meerkat Manor.  Talk about weird sibling connections.  BTW, I'm still sad about the split of the family after Flower's death.

Agenda for next weekend?  YO GABBA GABBA LIVE (natch)!

Thankful I Be on This Day (or, "17 Months")

 I normally do my Thankful on a Thursday posts over on Facebook each week, but figured it wouldn't hurt to pull it out over here on the blog.

To those of y'all new to the idea, ToaT is all about focusing on the little things that make you grateful at that given point in time.  In my heart, I'm always super thankful for the big guns -- health, gainful employment, my family, freedom, the Tivo.  But as each week brings its little stresses and problems, it's nice to have a stop and smell the roses moment where I focus on much smaller things.  Usually those things tend to be food related, but I may be thankful for the funny kid who made me laugh on the train, or for Joshilyn Jackson novels (sidenote to my Mama -- read Backseat Saints if you haven't yet).  Here's this week's submission:

Thankful on a Thursday: for Honeycrisp apples, to my work for FINALLY ditching Lotus Notes for Gmail, for the prospect of wedding dancing/drinking after a long week, and to a little girl who's given me 17 months of the most fun I've ever had.

HD is 17 months old today.  She talks a blue streak, already using short sentences to ask questions ("where Daddy go?") or issue proclamations ("Mama read book").  She can count to 10, always skipping the number 7 for some unknown reason.  She's so social, always ambling up to other kids or babies to say hi.  Definitely tenacious, very inquisitive, and occasionally a drama queen.  Loves puppies, playing outside, running and hiding under blankets or make-shift forts, and coloring/painting.  Still prefers to be rocked and sung to before bed.  She's rough and tumble, with that awe-inspiring yet heart-stopping toddler sense of invincibility.  It probably sounds like I'm describing any old kid.  But my kid is fearless...except for vacuum cleaners.

HD's "say cheese" face.

Heavens, Mama, it is a bit early for the paparazzi.

She went from patient...

...to "GIMMEOUTNOWMAMAWHY?!"

Avast! It Be International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

All abandon hope; ye who enter here.  Me first mate will celebrate by shooting daggers with her eyes. Now dance the hornpipe smartly, me beauties!  OR ELSE.

Piratical Nonsense (or, "Grateful")

Ah, the eyelashes

I think everyone has moments of wishing that you lived somewhere else, even for a bit.  We all fantasize about visiting a particular place and (definitely) glamorize said place.  Don't you have places or times or situations that you love to inhabit again and again in books, movies, or just your imagination?  [Me?  Pirating and Caribbean port towns aside, I am totally into Regency period England, modern-day New Orleans, and NYC circa 1980 when punk was on the way out and new wave was on the rise.  And that's just a drop in the bucket.]

And then it occurs to you -- wow, the people of New Orleans have no idea that I find their world so compelling.  I don't think any average citizen of NOLA (still dealing with Katrina and oil spill aftermath) is currently wondering if some random woman out in California is slowly becoming entranced by his city's history/music/food and planning a future visit.  The everyday culture of his world is simply a given, along with the problems that go with it.  Nothing enviable about that.  Why would someone removed from that reality fantasize about it?

Enraptured by Yo Gabba Gabba

So of course it's even more surreal when you realize that there's a flip side to that coin.  What if I'm the one inhabiting a world that someone fantisizes about?  What if someone is thinking longingly, "Man, I wish I was married to my dead sexy best friend; had a crazy, brilliant, HEALTHY, funny little girl; worked a steady job; lived in a safe, (relatively) clean home; and was still able to occasionally see awesome friends and family...".  When I think of it in that context, I realize that the mortgage, the commute, the bouts of teething and 1000 other little stresses are not as all-consuming as I sometimes make them out to be.  That I am one insanely lucky pirate.  



Enjoying one of the last bottles before we give 'em up for good!



Thoughts like that are also what motivate me to start saying nightly prayers with HD.  I hope that Hubs and I are able to instill in her a sense of gratitude for all we're given, as well as a good work ethic to try and keep it.   



Eating "cack-ahs" (crackers) and "butta-butta bye" (peanut butter, but it also means butterfly?)



Unfolded laundry aside, I heart this pic.  HD sorta looks like a Beatle

Blocks and Rowdy, HD's partner-in-crime

Ye Piratical Nature of Me First Matey (or, "Ways My Daughter Is Actually Like a Pirate")

 I submit the following as evidence that HD is, in fact, my child:

• Obsessed with mermaids (or, "mimis" as she calls them)
• Loves shiny jewelry/baubles
• Laughs when she inflicts pain (hair pulling, pinching, the occasional nibble or flailing kicks?  all hilarious when they land upon a parent!  needless to say, we're working on boundaries...)
• Hits the bottle multiple times a day
• Leaves a complete path of pillaged destruction in her wake (we're also working on the concept of putting things away)