Pumpkin Patch

One of the things we were sure to do while the grandmothers were here was hit up the pumpkin patch for our Halloween goods. It could have been better without the horrible mosquito attack in progress, so we didn't stay too long for pictures. Zara was in love with getting to pull the wagon around and less interested in the pumpkins. But every time she touched the pumpkins, she seemed to go for the warty ones. So we got ourselves a nice big warty one and a couple small ones for Zara and baby for inside the house.

Big Girl Birthday

I've been remiss on the blog lately, not for lack of things to post but lack of time and motivation. A couple weeks ago was my company picnic. Zara had her usual blast on the playground equipment and it was good to see everyone. After initially boycotting the dessert making competition since last year's "winner" was jello shots, I got suckered into making a dessert by a friend since they were short. Without time to make baklava, I tried a new date cake recipe and, surprised the heck out of me, won. At least I didn't make jello shots.

Zara's second birthday was Sunday and both of my parents and John's mom came down for a week to be here for the celebration. Much of that time was spent prepping for the party which involved me making cupcakes and trick or treat bags for an activity (I'll have to take pictures and post that later), along with the usual cleaning and preparing party food. Good thing I had some extra hands around to help. Zara got lots of neat presents from everyone (Thank You!) including some awesome clothes and toys. She was most enamored with the tissue paper, but such is a two year old.


But its not a toddler birthday without the picture of the cake eating. Zara is a rather neat eater, so nothing crazy there. But, for some inexplicable reason she opted for the no hands method of birthday cake eating.


Zara, you are a wonderful surprise every day. Watching you grow and learn, so quickly, has been an amazing experience for us both. You are such a grown up little girl, it's hard to even remember you are only two and its almost like you are skipping straight into being quite the young lady. Never stop smiling, never stop loving. Happy Birthday Sweetheart, Mommy and Daddy Love You!

Back with Splash

The work on the backsplash was completed Wednesday and I really liked the way it has all turned out. Overall, the feel of the kitchen has improved dramatically and is so much nicer than the cheap formica counter-tops and ugly 90s tile from before. Everything is really tied together and we were debating repainting the cabinets but now we think the colors are so nice together it isn't needed. The light fixture comes out later this week and the drywall on the pillars and the ceiling will be fixed just after. One thing that doesn't show in the pictures is that the pass through is now several inches wider and can support stools and a breakfast bar from the living room side in the future. Another minor thing we need to do is stop by the granite place later this week and get the matching tile outlet covers to get those to blend better too.

Phase 2

When we first moved into our house (oh my goodness) more than 2 years ago, we had Phase 1 of the kitchen remodel completed which changed non-useful desk and wall oven into useful cabinet and counter space. So what looked like this...

From New House

became this up until Sunday night. Since this, we also upgraded the dishwasher to stainless and the only appliance left in white was the stove pending Phase 2.

Now, phase 2 of the kitchen is in work which is ultimately where we wanted to go in the first place but didn't want to do with a newborn in the house. Yesterday was new counter-tops installed and wow what a difference just that makes. Today is tile back-splash, tomorrow tile sealing, and then the last step with a different crew will be getting rid of the horrid fluorescent light box and repairing the ceiling behind it plus we have to install the new stove and faucet and stuff. Here is the Monday night picture. I'll update again in the next day or so.

The Darndest Things

I've been remiss posting for awhile since I haven't been getting on the laptop much at home and work started blocking the frame I need to login and post during my off time there. I blame/admire the wonders of smartphones really for both keeping me off the laptop and making the other work blocked websites still totally reachable. Really no point in trying to stop people from checking their fantasy football in the office when almost everyone can just pull it up on their phone sans big brother.

Zara is only a few weeks away from her second birthday and while I know as much as she's grown she's still "small", that hasn't stopped her noggin. She long ago passed us trying to estimate the number of words she knows and frankly she can talk about anything for the most part and makes full sentences without missing a beat. Some incorrect pronoun usage is about the most difficult thing. If someone knows how to explain that she is "me" in the first person and not "you" let me know, but for anyone else "I help you" really means "you help me".

Lately though she has pulled out some real interesting sayings including telling Daddy to open the window "right now" and we've both gotten a "Good job Mommy/Daddy" when we gave her something she wanted. The one I'm still puzzling over though was when she got her sock on wrong and announced "I screwed up." John and I aren't sure if we've said that or someone else did but she gets the context right at least.

Are You Ready...

...for some Football? Zara was last week and enjoyed opening Sunday with Da-da.

The Happenings

We've had a few busy weeks and I am clearly behind on the blog. We took a long labor day weekend in Seattle to see family for starters. We met our new niece Niah and Zara got to play a bunch with her cousin Anja. We had a good time getting away for a night in Seattle to be adults and have some fun sans child for a change too. Besides, Jiddoh and Tayta are more than happy to have Zara to themselves for a couple days. Even though I took my camera, I actually didn't end up pulling it out of the bag for most of the visit and have few pictures. So here's one of Jiddoh with Zara and then a couple I took from the ferry back into Seattle on my last night there. I had to leave a day earlier than John to get to a work meeting in Cleveland. The meeting was at the NASA Glenn Research Center and that makes my 6th out of 10 NASA centers I've now been too. Left to hit are Dryden, Goddard, Stennis, and Marshall hopefully at some point. I guess I shouldn't wait two weeks to post and I should take more pictures since I don't have anything more to say about all that travelling.

Block Bag = Blag

Today I got all Sally Homemaker on Zara's new Mega Blocks. We stopped at Borders yesterday to see what they had with the going out of business sale. The kids books had been picked clean and we only got a couple of those, but in the toy area the Mega Blocks were also half off. We picked up a couple bags of blocks for Zara and since they were in some plastic ziploc close bags, that just wasn't going to do long term for storage. So today we picked up some cute courdoroy fabric and I whipped up a drawstring bag for them. Not too shabby and much better for wrangling them into one place.

Stupid Questions

Our book club book this month was "The Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination" by McKracken. The book is a memoir from a woman whose first child was stillborn and written shortly after the the birth of her second child. The book is sad, but not too sad and was both a good read and good discussion Thursday night.

We didn't get into this discussion Thursday, but one of the questions McKracken as a new mom had problems with was the "is this your first?" A VERY typical question and one that clearly is a lot more difficult to answer for her the most women, but it is stupid mom question number 1. I always thought that question sucked just because the follow-up to is usually smug advice about how they are expert parenters because they have three screaming brats in the booth behind them throwing things. But when you think of it in this context, it is just mean, even if it is unintentional.

Stupid mom question number two: are they sleeping through the night? No, and your kids didn't either so don't try to tell me otherwise.

Stupid mom question number tree: is he/she yours? Really, no, I borrowed this kid because I love grocery shopping and managing a fussy child. Of course, they are mine.

Hopefully you don't ask these questions, but just in case, don't ask me.

Potty Wars

We've been working on potty training for, well, months at this point. At first it was a game and Zara loved it for about a week and then it's been off and on since. Lately, we'd been on a real losing streak though with very few successes in the last month even though she would tell us potty and she'd sit there for a short time/long time/whatever time. After she gets upset, put her diaper back on and she goes in no time. We have stickers and m&ms as rewards, sing songs, read to her, or anything we could think of and nothing worked.

After perusing the internet for tips, we decided to try giving her privacy. umm... really, sometimes no matter how verbal a kid is they still just don't tell you what they want. Yesterday and today we've just been sticking her on the potty handing her a book and ignoring her and, bam, literally. Maybe there is hope after all.

Oh, and she is walking great again and running already. We've said good-bye to pegleg, she's healed.