14 posts tagged “fun”
I am sick. Hazel is sicker. Amos is not (lucky dude!). So this will be quick fast like lightening!
This week was productive in that I got new yarn and started knitting with it. Oh also the house was clean for one whole day. PRETTY COOL. Friday I got a crazy number of house-stuff done: groceries, dishes, sweeping, mopping, bathroom-sink-cleaning, plus I made a tofu/kale supper pie, which was phenomenal. But then I got sick yesterday, and all I did before Amos got home was feed Hazel and pick up a couple of promised books at the book sale. And today it's been mopey, snotty, headachey, orange-juicy shuffling from room to room.
Thus, the promised quick run-down:
I'm making the shawl on the left with the yarn on the right. This will be a kind of last-minute Christmas gift for my grandma. I'm making one that is a little bigger than the one here, since I want her to use it like a shawl.
Also, because Hazel was sick, Amos bought some Crayons for her. She's a little young, really, but he found these plastic-covered ones and she loved them! She didn't try to eat them once.
I took these two following pictures today with my iphone - that little camera really does a decent job!
Yes, that's a new pumpkin hat. I have been dying to make one for a couple of weeks now, and since I finished that baby gift I was making and was sick this weekend, I got it done very quickly!
I love this one - her face says "I am so embarrassed right now." Love it!!
Fall here is something to behold. Lasting for only a fleeting moment, the trees turn shades that have inspired poets, musicians, and artists for centuries. Amos took a school trip to Plattsburgh last year, and ever since he's talked about driving to this certain point along the way, where there are little waterfalls and a gorgeous view. Today, with the warmer 55 degree weather, we dropped all our work and jetted off. These are the kinds of trips I like the best; Amos and I both have so much work to do, we hadn't eaten lunch, but we knew that if we didn't grab the incentive and just GO we would never have the time. I only made time to grab my knitting, camera, and some milk for Hazel, and we took the afternoon off.
(I love that face on her. She was actually laughing, I just caught her at a weird moment, but these are the pictures I love the best.)
On the way home we found an excellent bar & grill way out in the middle of nowhere. I don't know what town it's in, I think it may be called Ohio, but I know we'll make our way back there. Hazel had an apple we brought along and some homemade, and therefore not at all greasy, sweet potato fries. These fries were reason enough to go back, clearly hand-cut and fried for just a second without any breading to mush things up. Homemade pickles and a fantastic burger eaten in front of a crackling fire sealed the deal for me.
Oops, forgot one!
I have finally, in the midst of all the reading & typing & cooking & not showering I've been doing, edited all the pictures from Hazel's birthday party.
And they suck.
I'm not kidding. They're all...dark. And kind of red. I know, it's probably just me who cares, but whatever. I'm consoling myself with all the pretty pictures I have of her on every other day, and I've concluded that birthdays are too hyped up and we may start celebrating her birthday on September 8th.
So here are a few (grandmothers, you are getting cd's with more):
Yes, that's right. Her cake had no icing. My baby hasn't had food coloring, or refined sugar, or a sugar high - arrest me!!
And this was taken a few days after her actual birthday; the sweet, adorable secretaries Amos works with (Hazel's "aunts") had a little something for her at school last Friday. This time I made up an "icing" that's really just nuefchatel with a little honey in it, whipped all to hell so it's kind of fluffy. That kid went nuts over it, so that made us happy. Seeing her covered in food did not. For y'all that don't know, Hazel is a pretty clean eater. It jankled my nerves to see white stuff all on her hands, then clothes, table, chair, us, you name it.
That's what the temp hit here -- 90. It was unexpected and kind of annoying, but I was so happy to feel some kind of heat that I didn't complain (I hope) too much. Here's a crappy photo of Hazel before we fled our insanely hot apartment:
She had a big day yesterday. We went to Old Navy and bought some new shoes for her, strolled around, hung with Trent (that's her boyfriend, she shares him with their other friend Emma), Britt, Sean, & Abbie at the tattoo shop, then Daddy came home! Amos had been in Plattsburgh, NY, for a conference since Thursday, so we picked him up late last afternoon. We took a mini-walk with her and dipped her feet in the fountain. She went nuts! This kid loves bathtime, loves playing in water, and she tried to do a swan dive out of Amos's hands into the fountain. We also let her feel the grass for the first time yesterday. She looked a little confused for a minute, then started cracking up. It was so adorable; in retrospect I wished I'd had some kind of camera on hand.
Today we are going to make all her baby food, take a walk, maybe see Britt & Trent. Tomorrow looks like another fun day - a picnic at Lake Delta with Carrie & Emma!! We are going to have such a fun time, especially Hazel. She'll feel sand, be in a bikini, maybe even get in the water a little. I'm so happy it's warmer here and that we can start in on all the fun summer things we have planned.
PS: It's Hazel's 8 month birthday today!
My mama came up to visit last Thursday! We had a great time doing what we do best - shopping, going out to eat, taking walks outside, watching movies. Mama got to sample the new Indian place a couple doors down from us (delicious, heavenly godsend to Clinton) not once but twice! The weather warmed up considerably while she was here, going from about 30 to the low 50s in just a few days. We took advantage and strolled Hazel all over the neighborhood. Of course, Hazel scored bigtime from Nana's visit; besides being picked up whenever she wanted and having all her toys available all the time, she got a new book, a playpen, some bath toys, and this other really cool wooden toy. Thanks Nana & Papaw!
We were sad to see her go, but that's the catch about living up here. We all had a great time, and it was a fantastic way to sort of kick start our springtime!
I love to shop. Like, really love it. Most of the time I don't even buy anything; I just like to see what's out there, what's popular, what all the cool kids are loving. That is why this has to be the best website ever -- wist.com.
Wist.com is like the best shopping list ever. Short for "wishlist," you can bookmark random things from any web page, creating a wishlist that spans the entire Internet. After a while it gets addicting, all this pretending to buy things, but in a way that's satisfying on in its own right. I also used this quite a bit when getting people's Christmas gifts; I would mark it, write it down on my Christmas list, and then buy it when I had the cash. I also like to bookmark toys I love for Hazel, so that when they go on sale or she's a bit older I won't go crazy searching for that one thing I saw one time, someplace, but can't remember where.
Here are a few of my favorite things from my Wist!!
How can things be happening so quickly?
She's already a month old. It's unbelievable!! But I can tell she has made some serious progress. She focuses on our faces now, will quiet down and sometimes even turn her head if we shake a rattle near her face, and has active alert periods where she interacts with us in her own 1-minute attention span sort of way. I found out that if she's crying and I brush her face with my hair she'll stop, and she loves to be sat up and bounced on my knee.
Today we got out of the house for our first real outing. Hazel and I have been to the doctor together and have driven Amos to work, but that constitutes the extent of me + Hazel + the car. Today, however, we went to my friend Carrie's house and hung out with her and her almost 1-year-old Emma. I had a very fun, relaxing time, but was also humbled by the experience. Getting around with a small baby isn't just hard because you have to drag their whole boudoir with you; I had to basically shanghai all Emma's furniture and even borrow some of her clothes to keep Hazel dry & un-naked. It's hard to explain, this neediness. I was prepared, too. I had a back-up onesie, hat, and socks, plus plastic bags to put her dirty clothes in, wipes, diapers, the whole thing - but in my preparations I didn't think needing a back-up back-up would ever happen, not for just a small trip at least. It's going to take some getting used to.
Tonight after another day of napping Hazel was awake for a few happy hours, so she and Momma played around with the camera a bit. Happy 1-Month Birthday kid!!
This is what my husband does on his days off.
I'm lucky to be pregnant and starving with such a creative and amazing cook.
Speaking of starving...hahaha!
We got back from Cleveland last night, and after a grilled cheese and a 12-hour nap I'm ready to blog about it! Seriously, it was only a 7-hour trip each way (including quite a few bathroom breaks), but when we returned Amos and I both were exhausted.
Monday we arrived in Cleveland around 5.00 or so. We beat the Confers by a few hours, so we took advantage of our gorgeous hotel. We had a swim, which felt wonderful and allowed me to make some moves not seen this year, and had a couple of drinks at the complimentary cocktail hour (shirley temple, thanks). Seriously, our hotel was amazing. We stayed at an Embassy Suites, which I've never stayed at before, and not only was it beautifully decorated and accommodating, but the staff there was amazingly nice and helpful. I am definitely going to stay there again! Anyway, after a nice dinner at a local Lebanese place I hit the sack while Amos stayed up to greet the family.
First thing Tuesday after a leisurely breakfast (also amazing, tons of stuff and it was all really good) we hit up the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. Amos and I took some photos outside, since you couldn't take any cameras inside the place. The Hall was both awesome and lame - on the one hand, seeing all the memorabilia was really cool. You could get an idea of the size of the artist by the outfits they had, and I was kind of surprised at how small Madonna must be and how tall Jimmy Hendrix would have been. A couple of artists even had the original,
handwritten lyrics of famous songs as they were drafting them (Momma, I saw the original copy of "Ramblin' Man") and that was the coolest for me. Only the bottom floor was really great, though. The upper floors, the ones actually in the glass pyramid building, were small and kind of lame. Also, I thought they had a shortage of great female rockers in there, but that's just me, right? The gift shop was fun, though, and surprisingly not over-priced. A couple of you got Christmas presents from there! ;)
After the Hall we hit up "Mama's Pizza" in Little Italy. This restaurant was featured in "Everybody Loves Pizza," which is a book detailing the best pizza places across the country. It was my favorite restaurant on the whole trip! I loved the pizza and the late 70's decor was just the icing on the cake. We walked around the neighborhood for a bit, but barely scratched the surface. There were a few square blocks of galleries, shops,
bakeries, and restaurants; the next time we visit I'm going to slate a whole day for just this area. We also drove out to the Polka Hall of Fame, which Jim really wanted to visit, and hung out there for a while. Of course we weren't as excited as Jim about this one, but he had a really good time and picked up about 70 CD's, so it was worth it! That night we had BBQ, pretty good for a chain, and saw the Zohan movie again, which was just as hilarious the second time around. By 10 pm or so when we were done I was worn out, so we headed back to the hotel for an early night.
Wednesday we headed off to the Arcade, one of the oldest malls in the country. We got a little sidetracked at a used CD/vinyl shop on the way there, where Amos got a couple of beat records for scratching & Jim got another CD or two. The whole area down there was adorable and looked like tons of fun. We passed the House of Blues and a bunch of cute restaurants, but we were too early for anything to be open really. Anyway, we made it to the Arcade, which was lovely but unfortunately had only super lame shops. Seriously, *super* lame shops. I don't think we went into any of them. It was relaxing and gorgeous in there though. After an ill-fated stop at the Science Center, which seemed to feature only broken exhibits (for real, we got our money back) we headed way out to another pizza place from the book. It was pretty good too in a totally different style. We were all kind of tired, plus the weather was freezing and rainy, so we headed back to the hotel for a swim, the
complimentary cocktail hour (Shirley Temple, thanks), and a game of pool. That night we went to a more upscale Italian place in a fancier part of town. It was pretty good, very pretty inside, and had several different tomato sauces on the menu (that's kind of rare for any place, usually it's just the red sauce and then white sauces). I got the baby a pretty blanket at a shop featuring green/recycled items and scored a reuseable bag on top of it. By the time we got home I was so worn out I headed up to bed, as did Jim and Laura, but Nick and Amos went to see a later showing of "The Hulk."
Sadly, the next day we had to leave. We breakfasted with the family and then headed in our separate directions. Amos and I stopped at the Waterloo outlet stores on the way home and picked up some cheap & adorable baby outfits from Gymboree & Old Navy, plus another Christmas present or two, and headed back in. We passed out by 8 pm last night, no joke. Definitely we'll visit again!
