Twilight Time (or, "Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling")

On a typical weekday, we try really hard to eat sitting down as a family.  Since HD is a monstrous talker, it's getting pretty cool to engage her in conversation while we eat. Especially now that conversations are all about how much she loves singing Frankenstein decorations.  But I digress. We usually get supper in (thanks to ingeniously short recipes and/or pre-cooking on the weekend) around 6pm.

Then, it's our fun little 30-45 minutes of family playtime.  Running around in our study, catapulting from the ottoman to the couch. Gazing at the illustrations from Big House in the Little Woods (can't wait to read that one with HD in a few years) and reenacting the scene where Pa pretends to be a mad dog to scare his daughters. Playing with her vintage Fisher Price Little People house, just like the one I remember from my childhood. Lots of giggles, lots of attention, lots of singing. It's a great way to bond as a family and get everyone's wiggles out before bath and bed time.

And while HD's shrieks of glee don't really jive with an old Platters song, Twilight Time is my favorite part of the day.

We Set Sail on the Annum of Tempests (or, "Two Years Old")

Dearest, most dahlin HD--

You are by far the funniest, weirdest, most intelligent and independent kid I could have ever imagined.  You talk and sing non-stop, pulling out large sentences that we didn't think possible for a kid your age (e.g. "Please, Mama, can you play the Ob-la-di song?" or "Harper wants to sit on the couch and drink milk and watch Yo Gabba Gabba").  There is a strong desire in you to do many grown-up things, but then in true toddler fashion you will pull a 3-second reversal and decide to fear your own power.  Case in point?  You lovelovelove to mop (or, "mob" as you call it), but you want to be held if we bust out the dustbuster.

Daddy & Mama are taking full advantage of this as long as we can.

You are currently obsessed with the Beatles.  You have dictated that your new name is Harper-Ringo (you've always dug the drums).  Then there's Daddy-Paul, and Mama-John.  Aunt Jillean just got you the Yellow Submarine book for your birthday, and you you tote it around everywhere.  Song requests for Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, and I've Just Seen a Face are very prominent in car rides with you.  Where do you come from???

You love to read books, visit the zoo, and talk about The Lion King, despite the fact that you're only patient enough to sit through no more than 40 minute spurts of the movie.  Legos are your jam right now, which makes your engineer daddy proud beyond belief.  You've mastered "please" and "thank you," which makes your Southern mama proud beyond belief.

We also suspect that your drama queen antics may be your actual nature, and not just natural toddler manic behavior.  I guess only time will tell there.

You turned two this month, and we had a little family party at Golden Gate Park with just the family.  Much more your style to celebrate with a smaller group to ensure that you are constantly the center of attention.  You received a crown and wand and we dubbed you queen for the day.

Mama's not much for decorations or crafty gift wrapping/birthday crown making...but you better believe I will always cook my heart out for you!  We had muffalettas, caprese sandwiches, homemade salsa, French potato salad, and yellow and chocolate cupcakes.  You especially loved the cupcakes and we were stoked that you knew what to do with the candles this year.  You even figured out how to tear open some gifts.

Hands free cupcake eating!  Dainty pirates don't muss their hands unless plundering is required.

After that, we had a blast just running around the playground and riding the carousel.  Aunts and uncles and grandparents all looked on.  

My favorite part was when you first woke up.  Elizabeth, the fairy who lives behind the red door in your room, had left you a wonderful birthday surprise.  You had bunch of balloons hanging out on your bedroom floor, all ready for you to jump and roll in.  They were your absolute favorite part of the day.  Once we got back from your picnic and park party, you insisted on playing in them the rest of the afternoon.  They had floated on over to the guest room at that point, but who cares where they were?  BALLOONS!!!

Dahlin girl, I hope that you maintain your sense of magic, wonder, and enthusiasm as you get older.  I hope that you always work so hard to demand the things in life that you think you deserve (although, with less tears, snot, and squeals).  You have an infectious giggle and are able to make everyone around you (even strangers) smile and act goofy.  As challenging as you are, you are also the major joy in your parents' lives.  It's ok to give us a tablespoon of exasperation, since you help wash it down with so many cuddles and songs and high fives.  Love you, butterbean.

The Cap'n Finds a Beloved New Port (or, "Girls Trip to NOLA")

Oh my goodness.  I have found a new obsession.  I tend to have lots of those.  It really started two years ago this very week...the BP oil spill happened in the Gulf.  New Orleans (as well as MANY other communities) got socked with a major disaster and subsequent bureaucratic bullshit just a few years after horrendous Katrina and her aftermath.  In spring 2010 I really started paying more attention to that region, its downfall and determination to revitalize, and firm imprint on American culture.  At just about the same time, the show Treme premiered on HBO.  Now, for those of you who aren't familiar, this is a show about life in New Orleans that takes place just a few months after Katrina occurred.  It's by the same team that did The Wire, which is sort of universally known as The Greatest Television Show of All Time Even though It Was Totally Unappreciated by the Masses upon Its Air Time (it's a working subtitle).  Anyway, Hubs and I watched entirety of The Wire over the course of my pregnancy (we finished the show about 3 weeks before HD was born -- I looked at him, depressed it was actually over, and asked, "What do we do now?"  He replied, "We become parents.").  So, having a budding interest in all things Gulf and missing the brilliance of David Simon, I plunged readily into his new show.  And boy howdy, was I hooked.  Not just on the show.  But on the resilience, the beauty, the violence and madness, and the tomorrow-be-damned festive nature of New Orleans.  It was a quiet interest, mostly played out in learning more about the music and reading up on the news stories that inspired the stories on Treme.

St. Louis Cathedral, view from Jackson Square

Then, around this past new year, a group of my good girlfriends from college all decided that since 2012 is the year we all turn 30, we needed to celebrate it up big.  I talked to Hubs and he thought a long weekend away with the girls was a totally fair present for a big birthday.  He'd use frequent flyer points (from his old job) to score me a free ticket, we'd budget for lodging and hefty food/drink costs, and he'd take the kiddo for 3 whole nights and days.  Have I mentioned how much I adore that gorgeous, kind, virile, crazy-amazing, beefcake man of mine?  And can you guess where my friends and I decided to venture?  I finally got to hit the city that's piqued my curiosity for so long.  And I fanned the flames of my Type-A nature by reading both A Confederacy of Dunces and The Awakening before the trip, not to mention downloading all sorts of music from the area, everything from bounce to zydeco.  What?  I like to be culturally competent when visiting a new place :)

These girlfriends of mine?  They're something else for sure.  There were 7 of us in total, and we're an impressive bunch.  Graduate degrees,  interesting & thriving careers, scattered all about the country.  Then there's little old me, the only mama of the bunch...guaranteed none of the other girls freaked out about how grocery shopping would get done while she was away, or asked her spouse 87 times if it was really ok if she could go.  The trip was wonderful, and we had such a blast just wandering without an agenda.  My days are typically so scheduled and structured, it was such a luxury to do whatever we felt like doing.  The only plans on the agenda were dinner reservations at Mr. B's Bistro and Luke, both were excellent.  Guess which OCD mama was the one to research and make reservations?  Like music and literature prep, researching restaurants is my way of psyching myself up for a trip.  Weird side note on food?  I realized the day that I left that I at ONLY seafood the entire time.  Oysters, fish, crab, shrimp galore.  NOM.

So what did we do?  Oh you know...wandered, ate, drank, and danced!  My first night was sazeracs with my buddy Alisa at Old Absinthe House, since we were the first to arrive.  By next morning there were 4 of us, and we perused all the art and day stages of the French Quarter Festival and hit Cafe du Monde.  As the rest of the girls (women by now, I guess?) arrived at a different time later that day, we all met at Pat O'Brien's home of the hurricane.  We had a lovely time catching up and enjoying our drinks (two hurricanes later, I am pretty sure I lost my eyeglasses there...oops).  Night out at Mr. B's for supper where we were totally raucous and annoying to every other diner in our vicinity.  So it goes when you reunite old sorority sisters.  Then wandering the Quarter, dancing to street musicians.  I capped off the night at the hot dog stand, which I am sure saved me a massive hangover the next day.

The next day split the group in half.  One sect toured the Garden District, and the rest of us checked out the Festival.  Tons of fun bouncing from stage to stage.  We saw a really talented jazz band of kids age 8-13 who have been accepted to play at next year's Rose Parade.  Had a ton of fun cheering our friend Rachel on at the swing dancing stage while she boogied.  Saw the super fun Kermit Ruffins and Barbeque Swingers.  We purchased a lovely birthday hat, and had so much fun celebrating a collective birthday party as we passed around the hat and gave each girl her "turn" at being 30.  The girls were nice enough to let me take it home to HD as a souvenir.  Evening was supper at Luke (along with a couple of prom groups, so cute), then a night out on Frenchman Street at several clubs.  We were taken around by a local, the cousin of one of the girl's boyfriends.  He was nice enough to listen to all my nerdy ramblings about how I boned up on music before the trip out.

Anyway, I'll let the photos speak for themselves, in no particular order.  Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Roasted oysters and french bread at the French Quarter Festival.

My love for high five photos is deep.   Luckily, my pal Rachel is feeling it.

Pirate's Alley Bar.  Obviously my favorite stop.

It may not have been Mardi Gras, but Indians were still about.

Our fun self-made go-cups :)

Rachel and Jen T, sporting the communal birthday hat!

The next generation inherits the birthday hat.

My turn in the birthday hat. 

Big Sam playing at Blue Nile

Coffee and beignets, from Cafe du Monde (of course)

Me and Jen, loving the Carousel Bar.

Indian!!

Jen T & Jaisha line dancing in support of the band on Pirate Alley

The whole gang after an amazing supper at Luke.

Drinking Dom Perignon, courtesy of baller Jillean.  Wooo!

Jen V & me, digging into po' boys at Acme Oyster House.

Conch Shells and Sea Chanties (or, "How HD at 22 Months is Like DP Mama at 13 Years")

Firstly, witness the cute that is my child when she purposely smiles for the camera:

Secondly, be thankful for that extremely rare footage.  We have a hard enough time just getting her to be still enough for us to capture candid stuffs she's doing, never mind a full-blown pose...

Lately, HD has become a little music obsessed.  I am very proud to say that she gets this from my side of the family, as my father, brother, and I are all a bit snobbish and faux scholarly when it comes to music, a la High Fidelity.  

So imagine my excitement the past month or so when all of a sudden, HD wants involvement in all sorts of musical processes.  She's always loved being sung to, and she'll more or less stop in her tracks to pay attention if she ever hears music on TV -- especially, inexplicably, for the HIMYM theme song.  But now?  She's constantly singing (she's got the entire first verse to A Pirate Looks at Forty down pat, I kid you not), she wants to play her xylophone and pots-and-pans drums constantly, and she can identify most instruments when she sees them (thanks to Animal Orchestra!).  I'm on the brink of busting out my old clarinet just to give her a thrill.

I was at Target last weekend, and I picked up a pair of children's headphones for HD.  We're heading on a cross-country flight later this summer, so I picked up a pair thinking we could use them for (last chance, emergency only) cartoon-viewing on Hubs's iPad.  HD was instantly drawn to her pink present, and was astounded when she realized that these magical things were basically her own private musical experience.  And she's been enamored ever since.

  

I've been trying to expose HD to all sorts of tunes.  My view?  She hears enough of I'm a Little Teapot at daycare.  I'm there to help guide her into understanding how pop music and the history of the world go hand in hand.  Do we love the Yo Gabba Gabba soundtrack?  Hell yes.  But it's important that kids know who Elvis is, and the glory of Otis Redding, and Mahalia Jackson, and Led Zeppelin, and Jimmy Reed, and Steve Earle, and Dolly Parton, and Raphael Saadiq, and Jenny Lewis, and the Cure (don't tell Hubs!) and...  Anyway.  Suffice it to say that HD's new fave pastime is to put on headphones, crawl into my lap, and make requests while Mama plays DJ on the iPod.   

Behold, my bebe's first time experiencing her own private concert on headphones.  I am so proud.

Words from My Wee Bairn (or, "Things HD Says")

So, we've been getting a lot of comments from folks about the kid lately.  Comments that infer people believe she's a year or two older that she actually is.  I'm still trying to figure out if this means people are blown away by her brilliance or they just think my itty bitty (who isn't two until June) looks like a preschooler.  She's not big, but she is pretty tall and has a lot of hair for her age.  So it's a toss up either way.

I'll leave it to you, dear readers.  Here's some photos courtesy of one of the moms at HD's daycare, along with a list of the most recent HD-isms.

• "See-ta-tay-toh" = sweet potato.  As in, "Go restowant for see-ta-tay-toh fies!" 
• "Sah Fasis-sko" = San Francisco.  She has a book of SF sites, and she loves to bring it with us when we go up to the City.  We did Fishermen's Wharf yesterday, and I can definitely attest that my baby is a city girl through and through.  
• "I want need."  No seriously.  She says "need" like it's the objective noun.  Full stop.
•  She constantly requests "The Harper Song," which in actuality is I've Just Seen a Face by The Beatles.  This is at times shortened to "ha-song" when she's getting frustrated that I won't sing it for the 14th time before 6:45am.  
• "I can't wait to go to school."  So I made up a really stupid little ditty for HD when she was a tiny baby, and I still sing it for her.  This example is one of the lines from the song, and she says it at random.  Perfectly enunciated, which is hilarious.  She thinks school at this point means daycare. 
• "Uh oh, mangoes!"  She heard the sing-song "uh, oohhh Spaghetti-os" bit from her father, and tried saying it somewhat unsuccessfully (I swear it sounds like "uh oh, bagels").  For whatever reason, she switched the saying to mirror her favorite fruit.  Cracks me up.
• Finally, we have The Mantra.  When HD does one of her toddler freakouts and she's in instant tears, either Hubs or I will say "Relaaaaax."  And she finishes the mantra as follows: "Relaaaaax.  Chill OUT.  Caaamm dowwwn.  Be cool, bay-bee.  Das right!"   And it instantly stops her tears, which is awesome.  

 --

Portrait Finale! (or, "End of Photo Project")

Ta da!  End of the month = end of the photo project.  Here's what happened this past week:

• a fave photo of you -- this is probably the coolest spontaneous shot that our wedding photog took nearly 3 years ago.  It's up on our dining room wall, one of the prominently displayed wedding shots in our house.  Soooo much more "us" than all the posed line-up pics that were taken outside the church!
• where you work -- "the largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States."  This is my extremely battered membership card.  Represent!!
• your shoes -- I actually wore heels to work that day, but since I walk over a mile between the train station and the office I brought my new Tieks (pictured) along.  Hubs's company gave out gift certificates for these shoes as gifts at the corporate holiday party.  SCORE.
• inside your bathroom cabinet -- not room for much other than some toothbrushes (inc. the mini one for HD)
• green -- my brother and I had a blast on Saturday taking HD to the park and local library.  Green swing set, green trees, green jacket.  Seemed right to me!
• night -- this former LA girl is still a sucker for the Oscars, despite the fact that I never have time to see more than 1-2 of the nominated flicks anymore.  I think my obsession is less about the speeches and clothes...and more about the fact that I'm pretty excellent at making Oscar picks (it's all about knowing the Academy's politics, which I'm a bit ashamed to say isn't hard to pick up).  Guess what I did all Sunday night after HD went to bed?
• something you ate -- second time this topic was on the monthly list.  This is one of my favorite home desserts: vanilla ice cream, lots of chocolate sauce, and dry roasted peanuts sprinkled on top.  The perfect salty-sweet, and still good even if the IC and syrup are low fat :)
• money -- in an effort to pretend I have some, here's a glimpse at my wallet.
• something you're listening to -- this was today's shot.  And I was extremely tempted to put in a pic of HD screaming with gumdrop sized tears and snot obscuring her face.  Let's just say that teething incisors makes for a pint-sized drama queen.  But I spared myself the agony of trying to get that shot, and focused on my refuge (iPod) instead.  Play on, Zeppelin.

Have I mentioned my recent obsession with the older model of Fisher Price Little People recently?  These are the ones that any person who was a kid in the 60s-90s will remember.  Apparently they were deemed a choking hazard after 40 years in production, and the new models are a but more...rotund.  I scooped up some of the oldies on eBay and HD is IN LOVE.