We didn't do a couple cool things today...

We hit up Leu Gardens for their "Free Before Noon Every Monday" deal, but discovered upon arrival (after getting there at 11:00, not wanting to wake napping babies, driving back out to Einstein Bros. Bagels to grab a picnic lunch for the Gardens, and driving back there) that it was no longer free on Mondays. Only FIRST Mondays. $7 per person? I don't think so. So we left.

And we had a lovely picnic at Loch Haven Park, letting Jhonen run around and play in a big field and on a big tree (though he still wanted to go right for the street), and Calina sat on her blanket trying to reach for big fistfuls of grass to taste. (Prettiest. Day. Ever.)

We wanted to find something fun to do, so Jack suggested that we go downtown (nearby) and check out the puppet museum, where he had some pieces on display. We were all for that, so we drove over there, only to find that - yup - they were closed. 0 - 2. Instead, we walked down to Bento to get some Boba teas: I had a passionfruit red tea with [slightly too many] pearls. It was yummy, almost up until the very end. :)

My good friend Stefany and her friend Chris are coming over tomorrow after traveling all over the country promoting Mona-vie, so I knew I wanted to make a nice dinner tomorrow night... I opted to wait to do the shopping until tomorrow when I figure out what awesome thing to make. So tonight was a "get creative with leftovers" night... again. It was probably the worst menagerie of ingredients I've ever had to deal with in this situation -- and I am usually SO good at it. But when you're really just out of everything, it's really, really hard.

I had a roll of premade pizza dough in the fridge, so I went for the make-a-flatbread-out-of-everything idea. 1/2 of the rectangle was turkey chili with cheese on top; 1/4 was hummus with breakfast sausage and baked beans with cheese on top; 1/4 was red sauce with chopped up fried chicken, buffalo sauce, and - you guessed it - cheese on top. (I knew if nothing else, Colin would eat the buffalo chicken bit.) For the most part, it turned out well. Certainly edible. If a little soggy under the middle chili pieces.

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Yesterday afternoon, we went to our friend Bryan's house for a why-the-crap-is-it-still-so-hot pool party... except that we had our first cold front of the year this weekend, and it was freezing. Still fun. My now-famous chocolate chip cookies were a huge hit, and Colin got in some rock band, with baby strapped on an all!  (Thanks for the awesome pic, Bryan!)

My 1st Halloween - er, Calina's first Halloween.

So, Colin's grandma (Nanny) has a crazy Raggedy Ann collection at her house in Oregon. I wish I had a picture to show you because when I say "collection", you don't usually picture what I am talking about. She has an entire bedroom in their house covered - top to bottom - in Raggedy Ann & Andy stuff. Bedding, lamps, dolls, figurines, books, toys, stuffed dolls, hard ones... Really, in a nutshell, it's a masterful, crazy, incredible room to set foot in - let alone try to get some sleep with all those EYES looking at you.

Anyway, I was inspired by seeing her room, and I thought it would be a fun tribute to Nanny if I dressed Calina up like Raggedy Ann for Halloween. Naturally this meant that I would have to MAKE a costume, since nobody dresses up like Raggedy Ann for Halloween anymore. These days, with about 85% of our sample so far falling into line this year, little girls are all fairies/princesses and little boys are all dinosaurs/dragons.

It also seemed like a good excuse to flesh out my sewing skills, since, on a costume, you can be a little more "fudgy" than on real clothes. And I was sure I'd need some fudging. And I did, but not nearly as much as I figured.

I managed to pull out some sewing skills I didn't know I had, and Calina looks totally amazing.

So today, we went out to the Sanford Zoo here for their annual Halloween "Zoo Boo". Best part was, we not only had a trial run for the actual holiday, but it also made me finish it early so I could get a bunch of photos to send to Nanny before Halloween. Too fun. The whole album is here, but I'll give you a little taste:

Everyone was probably most impressed by the fact that she didn't rip her hat off. We seem to have found another added perk of her helmet! She didn't even notice that she had anything different on her head!

We entered into the Costume Contest, along with about a dozen other "under 3's".

3rd place: The Alligator Dragon kid!
2nd place: The Little Purple Octopus girl!
1st place: Our little Raggedy Ann!

And our prize? A monkey as big as she is. :)

Colin's worried I've set myself up for failure... Now every costume she wears has to be as awesome as this one. And has to win prizes. :)

Autumn

There is nothing like autumn to get the fiendishly ambitious kitchen goddess out in me.

Yummy autumn goodies thus far created in our household:

1. A pumpkin roll with cream cheese frosting. (Yummy, but not "the" recipe. Will try a different one soon.)
2. Curried pumpkin seeds, roasted. (Amazing.)
3. Jess put together a pumpkin pancake feast for us this morning, to which I added a hash brown potato with peppers & onions.
4. This is all after I discovered the very best chocolate chip cookie recipe and made 2 batches.

Also, I've been making Calina's baby food... steamed carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, avocado, pear sauce. She is an incredible eater!!

Coming up:
-My first attempt at sewing baby clothes
-Halloween!
-A huge post from our Oregon trip with lots of photos & video
-Wedding planning!?! (Yeah, we're getting around to it, finally...)

What's happening?

I cannot believe so much time has passed since I've come over here to talk about life as mom. I guess living in my world makes it feel like time is moving slowly, but reading it back, I can see how it's actually flying.

Calina is joy and stress and laughter. Cuddles, squirms, and a bundle of emotions. It's strange how when she was a tiny baby it was easy to keep life somewhat normal, but now that she's getting bigger and getting a personality (she likes and dislikes things now) everything has become more about her and juggling things I would like to get done has become a lot more challenging. Back when she was 2 or 3 months old, I told Colin to enjoy that time, because even when things were difficult with her, I knew they were by far easier than they would eventually be. I don't think he believed me then, but I think that he's coming around. He told me yesterday that he was sad and surprised that he was more stressed out at home than at work. That he got to his desk in the morning and sighed with delight and realized how peaceful it was. I laughed and said I understood really well how that could be.

That's not to say that things are bad or even worse than they were - just different. I love that she is becoming a real character in our lives. It's so fun to sit down at the table with her in a highchair and give her spoonfuls of real food. It's amazing to know that if I try hard and push all the right buttons, I can distract her from being cranky or turn a good mood into laughter. I even love how difficult it is to get her to sleep because the payoff when she finally gives up is so incredible. Every morning she wakes up a little earlier than I'd hope, squirms, eats fitfully, and smacks me in the face/grabs my nose until I open my eyes. This makes her very happy, so I usually get a giant smile or giggle. She loves books and flinging/chewing on toys, loves her daddy and watching the dogs. She's become very fond of taking walks in her stroller, and will sit happily for an incredibly long time in the bath, as long as she has a couple of toys. She sings her "sleepy song" right before dozing off. She flails both arms madly up and down when she's excited and/or overtired, or when she's saying hello to someone.

She's over 16 pounds now and 26 inches tall (mostly looong legs!), perfectly average for her age. Her head is getting very nicely rounded out, but we're still not having an explosion of growth like we'd like to see. (Even though her head circumference is above average for her age, it looks like we still have some growing room with this helmet. Boo.)

She sits up incredibly well, pretty reliably without falling over unless she overreaches for something. She still hates tummy time (I think the helmet digs in to her neck), and though it's clear she wishes she were mobile, it doesn't look like crawling will happen anytime soon -- and other than the fact that I know she'd love to be mobile, I am enjoying every moment she stays put! She grabs and reaches for things constantly, one hand at a time, passes things from hand to hand to get a better look at something, and is doing less chewing on things and more shaking up and down.

She's eating solid foods like a champ - she eagerly eats everything I've given her: Mashed bananas, apple sauce, smushed pears, peaches, and steamed carrots (pureed or mashed, she likes either), sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and avocado. She doesn't care if it's lumpy or smooth or cold or hot, she likes it all. She loves sucking the juice out of big pieces of things: watermelon, pineapple, pickles. She watches Jhonen intently when he makes a lot of noise or plays with things or walks around. I love that he's right ahead of her in age - I think he'll be a good influence coming up. I'm hoping that his language skills will encourage hers.

I love that she's still enough of a baby to hang out in her wrap and fall asleep on my chest, but a big enough girl for me to sit her down and have her potentially entertain herself for a few minutes with a basket of toys. I think we've made it to the perfect age.