baby's got some new skills

Kiddo loves her some peekaboo - this was last week. Now she is actively hiding herself under blankets, teddy bears, whatever. It's pretty cute.

She can multitask. Now that she has learned to hold her bottle with her feet, that frees her arms up for all kinds of things.

And now this - I found this shopping cart toy at a garage sale two weeks ago and she went crazy for it right away. We were going to put it away until her birthday because she was not quite stable around it - would pull it over, not a good thing to pull up on because it moves, etc. Lucky for her we are lazy and it never made it to any form of storage beyond "by the wall in the living room". She would pull up on it, and if we were nearby, we would hold it still for her so she didn't fall down. Then yesterday I come home and she can do this:

burleygirl

So one of my Christmas presents from Stephen was a bike trailer. He placed the order from REI and it was backordered, then they said they wouldn't be getting any more after all - must be a model change. They had a floor model, but it was missing a part. So we went in to the store to check out what else they had.
Have you ever been to REI in January? They have the best sale. All their sale stuff goes down another 50%. Turns out they sell the missing part to that floor model, so they gave it to us for free, and we got a $550 bike trailer for $179. SWEET! It also converts to a regular stroller, jogging stroller, and even a cross-country skiing trailer. I don't think we'll use the skiing thing, but it's nice to think that we could. Kiddo seems to like riding in it, but is not a fan of the helmet.

green garage sale

Saturday morning Stella came with me to the lake to work out with my running buddies. I say 'work out' instead of 'run', since I was just up for a walk this time. I have misplaced my iPod, and while I know I can run without it, it is not as much fun. So I figured I will save my knees and burn almost as many calories with a brisk walk. Baby girl enjoyed the scenery and dogs. On the way home, we stopped at a garage sale, just to see what we could find. I LOVE garage sales - maybe it is the treasure hunter in me, maybe it is the haggler in me, who knows. It's a slice of pure entrepreneurism at its most basic level. And now I can love them for two more reasons: they are environmentally friendly and great for kids.
So I'm not just cheap, I'm reducing waste in our landfill. And if I find a toy or something for Stella, that means one less plastic thing has to be manufactured new.
Garage sale lovers, hide in shame no more! Be proud to shop in the most eco-friendly manner possible! No bags, no signs, no manufacturing! And don't forget to negotiate!

resolutions

Inspired by our friend Joe, who not only makes a detailed list of goals each New Year, but actually accomplishes them, we are joining the ranks of the resolute.

We're hoping that by publicly posting them, we will be more likely to succeed.

So here we go:

• Limit sweets to once a week. For Stephen, this means one day a week, for me, one sweet a week. Devil's in the details. Don't even ask him about bringing the Jewish interpretation of the Sabbath into the mix.
• No fast food, unless we are on a road trip.
• No sodas. (This one is easy for me, I've been off soda for years)

We are also charting our weight every day. So far we both like it a lot. I made graphs for each of us, with the pounds (to the tenth of a pound) on one axis, and the day on the other. It's posted right above our scale, so every morning we hop on and plot our progress. It's actually kind of fun. Sometimes you need to see that you went down two tenths of a pound, and the recording adds a bit of accountability. Of course for my graph, only the last digit of my weight is displayed. A girl's gotta have some secrets...

Another weight loss competition is starting up at work, and I think I will do it again. I love the competitive aspect, it really makes it a lot of fun. But then I find myself taking it little too seriously, so hopefully the fact that I am still breastfeeding will help me temper that (no skipping meals, gotta eat enough for both of us). It's starting to be light out longer, I am anxious to get on my bike!

Another goal of mine is to sell ten paintings this year. I started doing wedding dress paintings a few years back, they look like this:

It looks better in person. This is the bride's dress, along with the dresses of her bridal party. It's done in watercolor and ink, and the names and wedding date are along the hemline. I can also do just the bride, bride and her mom's dress, etc. Pretty much any variation on the theme.

These make great wedding or anniversary gifts. I sell these matted and framed, starting at around $100 (depending on size and number of dresses - the one pictured here would be $200). I can work from a photo, ad, or detailed description.

If you know anyone who might like one, send them my way!

Happy new year!

how could I forget...

This entry from our Christmas Eve cookie party, which definitely wins the Tarantino award for the evening. Note the innocent look on Mrs. Gingerbread.

our smokin' hot new year

My mom generously offered to babysit Stella overnight so we could do a practice run of being away from her when we are on vacation. Now that we are parents we need a good reason to stay up late on purpose. So we opted to get a room at the Hotel Adolphus, the place where we had our wedding reception. We got dressed up for dinner, Stephen was looking sharp and I put on my favorite magical evening gown. This dress is amazing. It made me feel gorgeous when I first bought it, when I was pregnant, and now 35 lbs smaller. I seriously feel like Daisy Buchanan in it. It is so delicate, almost like wearing a spiderweb with beading.

Anyway, we are about to step out the door, when Stephen's phone rings. It's one of our tenants. Our duplex is on fire. Happy freaking new year! Ours was smokin'!

It was a five alarm fire started by a heater unit that we had hired a company to work on earlier that day. Stephen called them in the afternoon after smelling smoke and asked them to come back and take a look, but perhaps with party on the brain, who knows, they chalked it up to dust burning off the coils, declined to come back and said not to worry about it. Then the sun went down, the heater kicked in to high gear, and the whole place went up in flames. Our charming 1920s duplex, that Stephen had just remodeled, was apparently built to burn. The fire started above the downstairs bathroom and quickly spread to the second floor bathroom and the entire attic. The good news is that no one was hurt, and big-time snaps to the Dallas Fire Department for containing the fire as quickly as they did. It could have easily burned the whole block of charming 1920s duplexes.

It is completely uninhabitable, you can see pictures on our Flickr site. Oh how I wish that it was snow in the pictures.

One of our tenants has renters insurance, she's going to be fine. The other one, not so much. We put her up in a hotel and got her some clothes, shoes, etc. and are helping her move her stuff into a new apartment.

If you are reading this and you are a renter, let me just step up onto my soapbox for a moment. Ahem. GET THE DAMN INSURANCE. It's only a few bucks a month and if your place accidentally burns down or floods you will have a place to live and possessions. Otherwise you are totally screwed. Our insured tenant immediately got $5,000 to cover living expenses for the next month, she is comfortably set up in a hotel and shopping for new stuff. Her insurance is paying for her possessions to be moved, catalogued, cleaned and stored until she moves into a new place. Stuff that is damaged will be replaced. She's going to be fine. Our uninsured tenant, on the other hand, would not have had a place to sleep if we hadn't put her up in a hotel. She would have only her cat, her pajamas and her wet slippers while things got figured out. Now that things are figured out, she has found a new place to live but literally has to go pick through the remains of her charred and wet apartment, where the ceiling continues to fall and the fireplace tilts dangerously, and get what she can salvage. She will have to clean it herself and just deal with the loss. So if you are renting, ask yourself, how nice is my landlord? Probably not as nice as us. GET THE DAMN INSURANCE, because even if your landlord is nice, he will not be reimbursed for the niceness.

birthday

Too much has happened in the past three weeks. Perhaps you thought we had grown bored and complacent, or overly consumed with arguments about fancy ornaments. The fact remains that the second half of December remains sorely unblogged. Here goes. Bear with me, there is a lot to cover.

We took a cursory pre-holiday break for my birthday. My mom, in town to greet her new grandson, made me the most delicious fancy cake with not uno, dos, or tres, but cuatro leches. Yum. At first I wondered why La Duni (one of my favorite places) would post the recipe to their signature dessert online. But then I read the recipe and realized that it is a low-risk strategy for them as few people would dare attempt it. Brava for my mom, aka Grandma Sugar, who was up for the challenge. It was amazing and we all had fun with the kitchen blowtorch. Stephen gave me a much-needed and still unplanned vacation for my birthday. This will be fun to put together. Any suggestions? I'm thinking someplace warm with beaches.

christmas time

What with the baking queen in town and all, I did not attempt my usual holiday baking. (First christmas with a kid, and I played that card for all it was worth.) With a nod to reality, I planned on falling off the no-sweets wagon for the period between my birthday and new years. I'm sorry, but if your mom comes to your house and plays with your baby and bakes you cookies, it is seriously bad karma not to eat at least one cookie.

Stella and her healthy fear of The Man.

Speaking of cookies, we had a cookie party on Christmas Eve. One of the best things about spending our first Christmas at home was coming up with new traditions. This one was a keeper. Let's see... my mom made all the cookies and icing, and my sister's in-laws brought dinner... I'd have to say it was the best party ever that doesn't involve grinding your own sausage. I'm thinking a potluck cookie decorating party will have to be expanded on in the future. I especially loved the part where everyone but me cooked. We kept things pretty small and low key this year on account of my new nephew Gabriel. Here are some of our favorites:

Best booty-loving cookie: Best self-portrait cookie (Stephen):

Best traditional cookie:

Best alternate use of the shape:
Best minimalist cookie (this one narrowly beat out my mom's classic one-shake-of-red-sprinkles):

and honorable mention because it's christmas in the Federation, too:

Christmas morning it was just the three of us, I made cinnamon rolls from scratch and we chillaxed. Opened stockings and got on Skype. All three of us got spoiled. Here's Stephen's new grill, complete with baby back ribs, ha.

In the afternoon my parents, Becca, Chris and baby Gabe came over. We opened presents and finished up dinner, which I had been planning ever since Becca announced her due date and I realized we would get to be home. Somehow the planets aligned, and even though getting to dinner took much longer than we thought, everything turned out perfectly. I don't know how. And now I shall bore you with the menu, what can I say I am very proud. We did a prime rib with port sauce (snaps to Jenny for the recipe!), savory sweet and regular potatoes, green beans, rolls from scratch, and a spinach-blue cheese and pecan salad. In the evening we invited the rest of the family over for dessert. One of these days I will get it into my head that when people have a big dinner (like xmas and thanksgiving) they just don't really eat much dessert. I still have pie in the fridge, it will just have to be thrown out due to age and sugar avoidance. We had a good time, it was a truly bizarre experience to not have to rush off to another celebration. Oh and I got called out (gotta love family) for what I thought was a good response to an unusual gift. ("Oh! I don't have anything like THIS!")

Overall, it was a great holiday. Loved the combo of not cooking, cooking and not having to go anywhere. Can't wait to try out my new bike trailer - I think Stella will like cycling.