At the zoo

Bunny goes "hop hop"
Originally uploaded by Maydela

Adorableness. Not only was she happy to show me what bunnies do (and point sadly to the empty cage while shaking her head to tell me there were no bunnies there), but she made the right sound for every animal she could; cows, sheep, goats, owls, bears, zebras, wolves, elk, tigers, lions and a few birds.
I decided to try out the stroller after a long break from it because she was refusing to sit in it. It worked pretty well until I ran out of snacks, so about 3/4's of your visit. And most of the time she wasn't sitting in the stroller, she was happy to hold my hand. Win/win.

UFO sighting

So, I'm taking part in Tall Grass Prairie Studio's quilt finishing challenge.
I plan to finish 4 quilts:
1) Sika's Wedding Ring. I have to finish hand sewing the binding on, clean and label it. Cleaning it will be a big pain, because of an old roommate's cats and improper storage.
2) Coulton's quilt. I sent his brother's quilt last Christmas, rather then wait to finish this one and send them together, which was a good idea I guess, because I got it quilted and bound, but it has been sitting for 11 months waiting for a label. I forgot it was still here until I found it a couple of weeks ago when I was looking for something.
3) Mariah's quilt. Needs to be basted, quilted, bound, labeled and washed.
4) Taylor's quilt (photos here and here mostly. Blocks helpfully made by members of the International Stash Busting Bee on Flickr. I needed to make 6 more for the layout I wanted to use. I have 1 left to make, then I have to sash, baste, quilt, bind, label and wash.

Those last three are for Walker's niece and nephews. I've been working my way through all the younger members of his family, which is hard since people keep having kids. When these are done, I have 3 left to do and then I can come up with my next long term grand quilting scheme.

Hey, it's election day. Don't forget to vote. As long as you vote the way I want you to!

Hey guys with long hair! When you finally decide to give a short hairdo a chance, you have to fully commit and get a style that will look good on you. It doesn't count if you just get it chopped into the longest possible bob you can still claim is 'short'.

Happy Random Tuesday!

Trick or treating was a complete failure. Too much excitement and change for one weekend. Good thing I got pictures of Moira in her costume a week early. Science World was a big hit though.

I am thinking of participating in this Joy in the New Year challenge to finish quilt projects by the end of the year, but I only think I can manage 3 and one it almost done, so it kind of feels like cheating. It's probably not cheating though, it's just being realistic. Actual number of unfinished quilts I have? 11. Oh, I guess I could sign up for 4, because actually getting the label on Coulton's quilt in time to mail it Michigan for Christmas counts, right? I totally thought that had already gotten mailed out, but I found it last month while looking for fabric.

I want to make this kind of tutu for Moira for Christmas. Maybe in rainbow colors.

I pulled a new stack of books for November when we got back from Canada. It turns out we don't really have any about fall or Thanksgiving, so the theme is Food. We seem to have a ton of Christmas and Snow themed books, so I will probably split those up, Christmas for Dec and Snow for Jan.

For more randomness, visit The Un Mom!

Best $5 I ever spent

You stay in here
Originally uploaded by Maydela

I believe I've mentioned how popular this baby doll is at our house. I have been keeping my eyes peeled for a stroller for the baby, since that's the first thing Moira runs to at other people's houses. I was almost ready to buy a brand new one (they are under $20) or at least, convince someone to buy her one for Christmas, but then we found this one at Tree House.
Best. Thing. Ever. Baby has taken lots of rides in it. The bottle opener has taken rides in it. Occasionally, Moira tires to take a ride in it. I managed to convince her to take it on our walk to the mail box the other day, but there was construction going on by the street, so she got scared and abandoned poor Baby halfway there.
Moira is saying too many things for me to keep track of anymore. I'm particularly proud of her for grasping the concept and pronunciation of " Nakkie" the last time we were at the doctor's office.
Night weaning is going okay. She will now go back to sleep every time she wakes up with just Walker's help, but she's still waking up frequently. With our trip to Canada this weekend and Walker's on call shift next week, there will be some backsliding, since I will have to handle night time then, but at least I'm not super sleep deprived anymore. Getting through the day is so much easier with 7 hours of sleep.

Hooray, beans!

Since the season for Farm Tots is running down, and Moira loves the big bins of beans they have there, I decided it was time to make one of our own. I found a big bag of beans at Costco yesterday, and today, while she napped, I filled up a box and hid a bunch of toys in it.
It was a huge hit. She spent over 30 minutes digging around in there happily and making strange noises when she found something new. Eventually she came over to see what I was doing, so I went over to clean everything up.

This is what she did. It was totally worth it though. Next time, I think I'll put down a sheet first.

Itsy bitsy Spider

Itsy bitsy Spider
Originally uploaded by Maydela

Moira loves this song.

Upholstery FAIL

Years ago, Walker and I went to Arizona for the specific purpose of renting a big car and driving this chair back to Seattle. It was the first piece of furniture his grandmother bought when they finally moved into their first home, because she had read an article that a comfortable chair for your husband was the most important piece of furniture. Walker has very fond memories of it, and I think it's a nice chair too. It's also the one we've been taking pictures of Moira sitting in every month to track her growth. The original covering had been slowly disintegrating, and when Walker's grandmother took it in to get it recovered originally, she was quoted the price for leather. Since that was ridiculously expensive, she had the cushion and the ottoman recovered in fabric.
When we got our tax return, I decided to get a quote on the recovering. Leather, as expected was ridiculously expensive, but the lady giving me the quote was looking at the rip in the side to tell me if she could fix just that part, and she pointed out that it was, in fact, originally pleather. Score. Walker's plan all along was to keep as close to the original chair as possible, so for 1/4 the price of recovering the chair, we decided to get the chair and both ottomans we have in the living room recovered.
Sadly, pleather right now seems to be coming in a range of almost pastel colors. I spent a while waffling between the color you see on the chair now, which was closest to the original color, only much, much lighter, and a brown I thought Walker would like better. I picked the brown one, but then I didn't pay enough attention to the work order that was being written up and she wrote down the wrong color name.

I complained after it arrived, knowing of course, that there was no way they were going to fix this problem for me. Walker was pissed, because OMG giant pink chair in our living room. Fortunately, the internet has cosplayer forums on it, one of which had instructions on using cheap acrylic paint (the hobby kind from Michaels) to change the color of pleather. We tested it out with the ottoman that is not part of the original set first, and it works beautifully. This is one coat of black, rubbed on with a sock. It's a two person job, since someone has to paint and someone has to rub quickly before it dries, so we will only be able to work on it on weekends, but I love the results. Moira was even kind enough to test it out and make sure the color wouldn't wash off.
Thanks cosplayers!

Halloween books

It's possible that Halloween is my favorite holiday. This is a little odd, since I don't like horror or suspense. But I do love dressing up, and babies in pumpkin shirts. We always go to Canada to trick or treat with friends, and when I was packing last year, I realized that I had a Halloween outfit for the five days we would be there before Halloween. This year, Moira's Halloween wardrobe is significantly smaller but only because there was nothing in the dollar spot at Target that would fit her. I looked.
I decided to pull all the Halloween books I could find (and the books about monsters and wizards) from her vast picture book collection. They have been sitting in a little stack by the fireplace, and she has been digging through them. The favorites are:
A Job For Wittilda by Caralyn Buehner - This keeps her attention despite how long it is, probably because of all the cats. And the chance to practice meowing.
Scar Scary Halloween by Eve Bunting - Another book with cats in it, but they really only appear on the last page. Moira seems to like the fact that it rhymes more then anything. The pictures are by Jan Brett, which I like
The Whingdingdilly by Bill Peet - This one is only good to look through on your own. She actually used to bring this to me to have me read it when she was first pulling books off the shelves on her own, but each page has multiple paragraphs of text on it and it's just too long to keep her attention. The pictures captivate her, but I'm not sure why.

Bonus non Halloweeny book:
10 Little Dinosaurs by Jim Harris - With the Halloween books pulled off the shelf, she can get this one off the shelf, so it's always coming out. There is a big pair of wiggle eyes attached to the front of the book, and holes in each of the page. It's written in the 10 little monkeys style, but each page is a different kind of dinosaur and each dinosaur type is doing a different silly thing.

Road trip quilt update

I'm almost done with the states I had already cut out, so I needed to figure out what to use for each state from what I have left. Using Google Maps to remember our route, this is the list of states visited, in order. If I've finished the block, there's a link to the picture. If I have the fabric, it's named next to the state.

BC - Y2K
Washington
Oregon
California - Velvet panties
Nevada
Arizona
New Mexico
Texas
Oklahoma
Arkansas
Louisiana - Space sheet, heart panties, pink chiffon
Mississippi - Lemon scarf
Alabama - Green floral skirt
Florida
Georgia
South Carolina - Houses & trees
North Carolina
Virginia
Washington DC
Maryland - Maroon scrunchy
Delaware - Purple floral scarf
New Jersey
New York
Connecticut
Massachusetts - Lighthouses
New Hampshire
Maine - Moose
New Brunswick - Autumn floral ribbon
Quebec
Ontario - Mirrored halter
Michigan
Ohio
Indiana
Illinois
Wisconsin
Minnesota - Animals fabric
South Dakota
Montana - Cowboy fabric
Idaho - Pumpkins
Washington
BC - Sunset

42 states visited. BC and Washington are listed twice because I was living in BC and my boyfriend was living in Washington, so we did drive through them twice leaving and getting home.
16 blocks completed, one in progress, Massachusetts. I should remember to check my spelling on that one, since I keep misspelling it here.
I'm missing 9 fabrics. I distinctly remember buying fabric for Washinton while we were in Spokane. I talked to a lady who liked to go on motorcycle trips with her husband and two young daughters. She told me way more then I wanted to know about the logistics of that. I'm actually surprised I'm only missing nine, since I didn't do a good job of keeping things all together for the first 6 years after we got back. I'll have to do one last search through my bins, and then if I can't find them, I'll cheat and buy fabric now. I suppose I could try and find online vendors from each state to buy from. Hmmm....

Fashion show

Since I've been mysteriously losing sizes, but not weight, I've been doing a lot of shopping lately. I was telling Pearl that I want to get back to how I used to dress before I dated the guy who would complain if I wore more then one color at a time, or if that color was not red or black. I didn't mean to change how I dressed for him, but it's hard not to want to look nice for someone you love.

Pearl thinks I'm crazy, since according to her I have been clashing the entire time I've known her, but as I've been scanning in my childhood photos, I'm being reminded of just how quirkily I dressed. These are the best examples I could find last night.
I thought this combination was great at the time. Actually, I still really like it. Both shirt and skirt a pure silk, so I never got to wear either one very often. I had that skirt for at least 10 years and I probably wore it fewer then 10 times. I wore it to my sister's rehearsal dinner with a bright green shirt and white tights.

This isn't the best picture of this skirt, but I wore that skirt to death. With everything. It was just one of those tissue thin, cheap, elastic waist circle skirts. I think I got it at the Punjabi market in Vancouver, BC. It was constantly ripping and I would carefully whip stitch the holes closed. By the time I gave up on it, it was fully an inch shorter on one side then the other because of all the mends on that side. The lace shirt I'm wearing is a leotard. Aaaah, crotch snaps, the most comfortable thing on a piece of tight adult clothing.
I haven't found a picture of the electric blue unitard I wore a lot in high school. Sometimes I wore it with cut off jean shorts and a vest, but sadly, sometimes I just wore it by itself. Or the green velvet stirrup pants that were given to me by a guy who wanted to date me, who got them when I girl he was cleaning out his closet. Yes, he used to wear them. And then I did. Eeeew.

When I was at Goodwill yesterday looking for long sleeved shirts I found a little red velvet dress with a white pinafore. I got all excited because of this picture of me when I was 3 (I think). Hurray for recreating your childhood with your own kid's outfits. I'm glad she hasn't tried to exert any form of control over her own wardrobe yet, and I still get to pick out her Halloween outfits and party dresses. Not sure she'll be able to wear it this year. The sales tag said it was 24m size, which would be perfect, but the tag on the pinafore says 4T. We shall see.

I miss you, Oxytocin

We spent Sunday before naps doing some reorganizing. Bobbe put some sliding shelves in our pantry two weeks ago, and I hadn't finished putting the food back in there, so I emptied the last two boxes. Although, come to think of it, I think there's still another box somewhere in the basement and there are also some dry goods in canisters that haven't made it back in yet. Walker also moved our exercise bike into the big unfinished rooms so we could close the closet door in the tv room, since Moira has started climbing over it to get to the garbage can and electronics in there.
The big project was Moira's room. There have been mounting piles of outgrown clothes in there for 6 months. Also, she's figured out how to open her closet door, and was playing with the china dolls that were in the wicker chest in there. So Walker entertained her while I spent a few hours packing clothes up and reorganized her closet. The China dolls are no out of reach, and the other ones are out where she can play with them. Shanny (I used to name my dolls after nicknames I hated, so when someone called me Shanny I could say "Why are you talking to my doll?" I started doing that when I was 5) has been a big hit, but she really needs a bath so I guess I should google that. I also reorganized her drawers so that the top drawer (the one Walker always opens first) is now full of complete outfits. He has been pulling out the same three shirts over and over and then not being able to find pants to go with them. Hopefully I can keep up with this and her clothes can get more even wear. Certainly this way, she'll be less likely to be wearing her blue plaid pants and red zebra print shirt.
Ever since Becca & Andrew's wedding, Moira has been waking up three to four times at night, instead of the one to two from before. This wouldn't be so bad, except that at least one of those wake ups, she doesn't settle down for over an hour. Or rather, she's most of the way asleep, but changing position every few minutes. Nursing, sucking on my finger, rolling away from me, sitting up, flopping her head onto my chest (and frequently hitting my head instead), rolling over me and starting all over on the other side. This is really frustrating. I've been trying to stop that cycle before I get too frustrated, but it's hard to remember at 3am. I think instead we need to try some night weaning. This is guaranteed to make her more pissed off in the short term, but I'm hoping that if she can't get milk in the middle of the night, she will start sleeping for longer stretches. We are both waking up so tired in the morning, and it's getting really hard to make it through the day.
Wish me luck.

That was exciting.

Yesterday, while looking at pictures from Becca's shower (taken with a camera that frames all the photos with Hello Kitty) Moira started saying "Hi Kitty!" Unfortunately, she also said it at 1:30 this morning when she decided that she didn't want to sleep anymore, because of her stuffy nose. Unfortunately, this means whatever cute thing I was planning to say about this picture has been knocked out of my head by sleep dep. But look! She figured out how to color! Yay! Next up. Playdoough!

She's eating less in general, but still a lot at dinner. Possibly because everyone is there with her and eating and she can be just like Mommy and Daddy. Possibly because after a whole day of running around and trying to convince me to give her something different for a snack that what is being offered, she's starving. I decided after the hives joined the other two symptoms of "Hey Mom! I have a food allergy!" that we should take dairy out her diet to see if that was the problem. Fortunately, it was, because wheat or corn would have been so much more of a pain, but the removing dairy is still hard. Walker forgot and fed her some of his buttered bread. I decided pizza would be okay if we just took the cheese off the top. Not so much. Anyway, I think that's part of her problem with food right now. She wants me to find the bunny crackers, or the cheese sticks. We are going to give it a go for 6 months and then try some cheese. If that's not a long enough break, then we get to wait a couple of years, at which point I will probably investigate fake cheeses because I don't think I can go that long without mac and cheese.
Oh! I forgot to mention the fork! She loves to eat with a fork. Sometimes she wants to try out all of her forks to see which one works best with her meal. Adorable.

It's all good

This is serious business
Originally uploaded by Maydela

See that serious face? This is how she looks every time she swings. It's the only thing she wants to do from the moment she sees one, for about a half an hour. I'm pretending that pushing her on the swings is good upper body exercise.
In the last week she has:
Learned how to do the motions for The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Learned to high five
Said No, twice
Said Hi, a few more times then that, but still not regularly (The first time was to Stewie when we woke up in the morning and he was asking to get out of his crate)
Started doing the motions I do for some books, like moving her hand in circles over her belly when we read the page of "Tickle Tickle" where they scrub their bellies
Started leaning back and forth when she either wants me to sway her on my knee and sing "This is the way the Farmers ride" or I have mentioned farmers
Rubbing her belly when I ask if she's poopy and the answer is yes
Wiping her face with a cloth, or if she doesn't have one, pretending to do it
Feeding her baby while it sits on my lap
Moved from brushing only her hair with any brush she finds to also brushing mine, and trying to catch Stewie so she can brush his
Can open the door in the TV room, which has a door handle instead of a knob. She's working hard to figure out the knobs

Long term WIPs

Now that I'm done with the stuff I was doing for the wedding (well, not the quilt I'm making them, I should really finish that) and caught up on the swaps I signed up for, I've been poking again at a couple of quilts I've been working on for me for a long long time.

These little drunkard's path blocks are for a quilt I designed in 1996 or 1997. Each little block is 2.5" and the quilt is supposed to be Queen sized. When I sat down to figure out how many blocks I needed in 2000, I discovered it was something ridiculous around 2000, or possibly 3000, I haven't looked recently. So of course, I decided to hand piece it. Partly because I didn't have my sewing machine with me, and partly because I am crazy. I'm also cutting a maximum of 8 of each piece (outside arch and inside wedge) from each fabric pair.

These blcoks, (and more on my Flickr) are for a quilt I'm making to commemorate a road trip I took 2000. We went around the US and parts of southern Canada, and I tried to get fabric from every state/province we went through. Because my boyfriend at the time refused to go out of his way for anything and we didn't have the internet everywhere to easily find fabric stores, most of what I bought were premade items, like a bandana for New Jersey. I have knit shirts and a free thong thrown off a float in New Orleans, so it wouldn't work to try to piece it. I decided to make these applique houses, and embroider the state name and some scenery on each block. It's a lot of fun, but I put off starting for so long, I'm no longer sure what state each fabric is supposed to be for. Tillie, who was on the road trip with me, said that is kind of in the spirit of our whole trip, so I may as well just randomly pick fabric that seems right when I'm not sure.
I still have to put wheels on the cars on New Jersey, but I keep forgetting to grab my black floss when I'm working on it.

Good old Murphy

When I woke up this morning I realized that the busy week I had thought I had was actually pretty empty. Especially since Moira has been falling asleep too early to make it worth it to try and go to the 11am play date I was hoping we could go to. I said something on Facebook about having nothing to do today.
Moira and I went to the grocery store and when we came home I discovered tiny pink spots all over her front and back from neck to crotch. So I called the Doctor and got an 11:30 appointment, and we hightailed it over there.
After our last round of shots, Moira suddenly developed a fear of bandaids and stickers. That is gone apparently, at least for stickers, and she has developed a more rational fear of anything the nurse or doctor might do to her, including having me take off her clothes in the exam room. So, the exam was fun, with the screaming because we were measuring her and then more screaming while I had to hold down head, legs and arms so the doctor could look in her ears.
Fortunately, the most likely culprit is a viral infection, which isn't contagious and should clear up in 7 to 10 days. The second most likely option is that she had an impressively severe reaction to the three sunflower seeds she had with mid morning snack. We get to monitor her temperature and look for itchyness, and wait.
Of course this makes me think of something that happened 13 years ago. My Mom called and told me that there was new research and scientists now think MS was caused by a virus a kid gets sometime in their first year that causes a rash, but no fever. I hung up the phone and before I could step away, it rang. Sarah called to tell me that her 1 year old had a strange rash, but no fever or itchyness and it was so weird. So of course I told her. That was maybe not the most comforting thing to say.
So, when Moira gets MS in 40 years, remember, you heard it here first.

Mental note

Sometimes it takes me a while to catch on. Like a few years ago during the record heat wave when I realized on the last day that I should get in the pool in our backyard. That would have been a good idea.
Similarly, Moira has been very clingy lately, and also bringing me the sling and making me carry her baby in it. It suddenly occurred to me yesterday that maybe she would actually want to sit in the sling, so when we took Tillie to Greenlake, I took the Babyhawk and Moira happily rode in it for the first half an hour. I had to force her back into it so we could get back to the car in time to get lunch before we took Tillie to the bus station, but she calmed down eventually.

I kept that experience in mind and when Moira started getting cranky this morning, got us suited up and took a walk to the park, since Walker took my car to get it's oil changed today. Moira was so happy to be cuddling me there and back, and seemed like she might even fall asleep on the way home. I figured she was just extra cuddly though, since the idea of her falling asleep at 10:30 is ridiculous, but by 10:45 she was inconsolable, so we went off to bed. To make her week more difficult, we are trying her in her own bed on the floor, so I can get some time in bed where I'm not twisted into a pretzel. The first few days she did not want to lay down on her bed, but yesterday she suddenly decided it was okay, and will jump into her bed when I ask if it's nap time. I even found her leaning on it while playing with her toys yesterday.
I got a new phone, and while I remembered to use it to take pictures at the park today, I forgot to take into account the fact that the sun was directly behind where Moira was playing, so this is the only shot that turned out. She had a great time climbing up the stairs and then sliding down the slide all by herself. I'm glad we tried it because now I know that Big Finn Hill park really is walking distance for me, although coming home up the hill with the baby strapped on my front was a bit hard. Next time maybe we can take the stroller. It will be a long long time, if ever, that she'll be able to walk there by herself, since you have to cross Juanita Way on a curve, and there are no crosswalks, lights or even sidewalks between here and there.

Favorite books at 16 months

Tickle Tickle by Helen Oxenbury
I don't mind this one so much. It's short, it's cute, and she's started doing the motions I was doing (pretending to wash her tummy, brush her hair) and giggling as she waits for the 'surprise' tickling at the end.

Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathman
Another one that's not so bad to read, because there's not many words. Plus, Moira is starting to make the surprised mouth when the wife realizes that all the animals are in her bedroom. Walker thinks it's highly unfair that the Armadillo is the only one without a stuffed version of itself (it has an Ernie doll instead).

The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too! by Mo Willems
I would kick Dad for having bought this one if Moira didn't like it so very much. I'm surprised she's that into it since it has such simple illustrations. I guess I should read the other books in the series to find out why he has such a bad relationship with the Bus Driver, or at least the one called The Pigeon Loves Things That Go since there's a bus on the cover. That probably explains it, right?

Where is My Teddy Bear? by Frida Bing
An exciting and suspenseful book. Moira's favorite page is the one with the duck on it. Fortunately, the flaps you lift to reveal the hidden toy are big and sturdy enough that Moira can't accidentally rip them.

My Nose, My Toes and Me! by Frida Bing
This is the sister book to the one above, and Moira greatly prefers it. She reliably points at all her body parts mentioned in the book, except her eyes, which are first. I think she's worried she'll accidentally poke her eyes. Which, given how hard she likes to jab my eyes, is a big possibility.

Opposites by Robert Crowther
Another new book from my Dad. When Moira noticed this one and we read it for the first time she thought it was the best thing in the world. In fact, I had to hide it on the counter eventually because she threw a temper tantrum everytime I finished the book and closed it. We read it 5 times in a row before I decided it was time to calm down. It's a pop up style book which is exciting and opposites is her favorite thing to read about, so I guess it was destined to be a favorite.

One Moose, Twenty Mice by Clare Beaton
There is a cat hiding on each page and Moira can find most of them, except for the pages where all you can see is the tail. And the page with the Moose on it, because apparently Moose are that exciting. I like this one a lot because all the pictures are made of felt and beads.

Petit Poney printed by Grund
I can't find this one, is in French and I found it at a thrift store. The book is pony shaped and has flaps to lift. She really seems to like anything we read in another language out of proportion with the actual interest of the book, so that may be most of the draw. You'll be happy to know that the little pony does eventually find someone to play with, although why a cow, a pig and a goat are hiding in a hay pile, I don't know.

How to Be a Cow by Shelly Meredith
This one I will kick Dad for buying. It rhymes, it's nonsensical, and it seems to be pushing some sort of strange pro conformity message (yay herd mentality!). The best part is when it ends and I hide it so Moira can't insist I read it again 5 seconds later.

Pajama time! by Sandra Boynton
I have such a love/hate relationship with Sandra Boynton. Some of her books, like Doggies or Moo Baa La La La are great, but for every one of her books I love, there's one like Pajama Time that I hate. This is the book version of a song she wrote. I've never heard the song,but I have to assume it's better with music then it is in text. Moira seems to like it best after the ugliest pajamas ever make an appearance, but sadly they don't show up for the big dance party scenes. The warthog must be to embarrassed.

Where is it?

Where is it?
Originally uploaded by Maydela

Moira is too interesting for me to properly record now. I've given up on her baby book. I made it through the first year, and I figure that's good enough. It was my original goal, because I never thought I would get all the way through the two plus years the book is designed to cover.
A small list of things she has started doing recently.

• She holds her hands out (or more recently, up by her ears) in the classic "I don't know!" pose when I ask her where something is.
• She can say "Up!" It was "Bup!" at first, but it is sadly losing the b really quickly.
• She requests our drinks by saying "Ein!" which I think is because we tend to say "That is my drink, this one is yours" when she asks, and she wants the "My drink."
• She can climb onto everything and it's a short time before she manages to scale the baby gate.
• We would take the baby gate down, but she refuses to crawl down the stairs now, and if we aren't there fast enough to hold her hand, she tries to do her silly stair climbing walk without holding onto anything and takes a big tumble.
• She likes to help put things away, to the point where I'm kind of abusing it by asking her to put away whatever she's playing with that I don't want her to be holding.
  

Dear Picasa facial recognition program

• If the faces you are clustering come from the same photo, they are probably not the same person
• Not every baby in my family is either Mark or Moira.
• Please remember to include the part of the face below the nose in your search box. That will make it easier to cluster photos properly. And for me to figure out who it is.
• I love you, despite your faults.
  

Vintage Photo Friday

I have like, 1/4 of a post written and saved so I can more properly ignore it, but I'm hoping that doing this again will remind me of how easy it is to actually post.

My great grandfather, Holger was a mason back in the day. I think he's the one second from the right in this picture, but it's too small for me to be able to tell entirely.

This is one of the houses he built in progress. When we were looking for a house last year, Walker fell in love with a brick house hand built by the owner. Not a single project was actually completed. My favorite feature was the light switch next to the sink that was not actually mounted in the wall, but instead surrounded by a protective tent of bricks. We didn't get it, thank goodness, but we tried. My aunt Bobbe is a contractor, so she came over to give us a bid, and after being horrified for awhile, she finally said, "Well, Holger would approve."

My Nana with her younger sister, Marilyn and her mother Oline outside their house. Again Holger did the brickwork. I think I remember my sister telling me that he would build one house at a time and they would live in it until it was sellable and then move to the next one. But I may have that confused with her sims.

For more vintage photo friday, visit Paper Dolls for Boys