Birthday Amuse Bouche

On Valentine's Day we celebrated the one year anniversary of travel girl's arrival. There will be a much longer blog post replete with pictures and mommy feeling later this week. In the meantime here is a little somethin' somethin'. (Can I just say that the birthday girl ends up crying at any good birthday party? Tears mean overstimulation and sugar. Hello good time!)

PiLove Tile Style

Sometimes I have a husband that loves me. Sometimes I get early birthday surprises. Sometimes the husband that loves me gives me early birthday surprises.

Exhibit A: Returned home from my business trip to find the bathroom beautifully and perfectly retiled. Can't help lovin' that man.

The Lady Walks!

It has begun!

(sorry the video is sideways...anyone know how to fix that?)

Who's the best girl?

Margaret is!

Today is Margaret's 1st birthday party. There will be chocolate cake, lasagna and family. We are all excited.

Before the petals fall...

Miss Georgia O'Keefe doin' what she do

I am so happy and so idle. The store is empty. So I will write. Why does writing always start with an empty space, empty room, empty page. I love Riley without complication and I love Margaret as an acolyte loves her priestess. I am learning about life through a prism of love and I recognize it is unfair. Where are the demons wrought by dysfunction and disappointment? Nothing to overcome but my own happiness. Maybe the demons spring after the anointed has recognized the blessing upon her head. The only darkness is my fear of it. I wake up sweating. Margaret is gone. Riley is without merit. The panic lasts until I shove Mr. Husband. Shove and his arm is around me and for that moment I have everything I could have ever wanted. A moment I can drink from when loss has made me thirsty. Double happiness for me.

Rainbow Face says Boo!

Halloween.

Katie presented "Tay and Riley as David Bowie: Then and Now".

Margaret was a friendly lion.

I wore Lipstick.

Pizza and candy and mariachi music.


Tay transforms into the god of androgyny

Adam Lambert eat your heart out.

Roar and Meow.

That lion is sitting on a NEW pair of jeans. Color me lucky.

Happy Halloween. Love Rainbow Face.

Make it Better

For the first 7 months of Zuzu's life she slept in a contraption called an Amby Baby Hammock (http://www.ambybaby.com/) It was the perfect fix for her acid reflux and one overly anxious mama. The Amby is a sleeping hammock that sways with the baby's tiniest fidget and holds them tightly in a cocoon of goodness. Riley and I used to sit and watch her sleep, not just because we loved her, but because we wished we had an Amby too. The jealousy was surprising. Let's just say that if you knew what it was like to fall asleep on a cloud while being sung to by butterflies, you would know what it was like to fall asleep in an Amby. Lucky little kid. Well as it seems must happen with most lovely things...the age of the Amby has had to come to an end. The Zuzumeister is growing up quickly and sadly one cannot be sung to sleep by butterflies forever. Yesterday while she played at my feet I took down the Amby and set up her crib. By all rights the crib should be appreciated as thoroughly as the hammock. It is solid wood (a real luxury in our little house), painted a fine distressed black and and topped with bedding sweet as cream. (http://www.littokids.com/magic_garden.html)

I didn't think the transition from cloud to crib would be very traumatic. Right. At nap time our little bug SCREAMED for 45 minutes before finally settling tightly into the corner of the crib. I spent the entire time sitting just outside her door (unseen) or rubbing her back as she sobbed into the sheets. It was awful. I was positive her first words would be found in the crying mess and that they would be of the four letter variety. Bed time was only a little better.

Today I kept her awake an hour past normal naptime, before I put her into the pack and play at my parent's house. She finally fell asleep after pulling her blanket over her face. Little broken hearted mama had to let her baby learn to cocoon herself. I realize now that my little babypi must have felt so vulnerable in her big new crib. Where was the cloud? Hello, I am missing some singing bugs! Anybody seen them? Everything was so much harder, so much bigger. I hate that at 7 months I am already having to strip her of bits of her childhood. I want her to stay on our cloud. I hope she knows I will always be just outside the door, that my heart breaks with hers, that I will always be good for a back rub, even if that is all I can give.

Zuzu misses Nana

So sometimes Riley twirls Zuzu until she pukes. She loves it.

Zuzu plays it cool

We tried to get Margaret to do something interesting. But she wasn't having it. At the end of the video I foolishly say that I can get her to laugh. I couldn't.

Here is 30 seconds of Riley's best attempts. (This will only be interesting to grandparents and people who own a dog named Ottie.)

Holy Fire

Cleaning the house to the angsty magic of Arcade Fire. Margaret is singing along with troll grunts and squeaks. Half inside the fridge trying to find THAT smell when suddenly I am breathless with happiness. Absolutely dizzy headed with the greatness of OUR lives. A more cynical person might chalk up the event to the surprisingly pungent power of a month old cucumber I found behind the milk. I know otherwise. Canadian alt rock is good, God is great and I am happy.