November 17!

Today I went to get a police background check and this is what I learned :


woooo!! They can't find any records of my copious arrests! or... something.

Background check and TB test are required for volunteering thing that's coming up.

Took some cute pictures of a cute baby today who doesn't have a blogname yet. I'm still thinking.

November 16!

Baby Space Monkey is getting very big. His first tooth is about halfway in his mouth! well, it's always been there... it's just visible now, or, whatever. He's getting really good at crawling and he really wants to stand and also really likes wiggling back and forth while he's sitting, as if he is learning how to dance. It is excellent. Anyway, these are his hands.

Oh also interesting story. I took that picture of my cat hiding on the stove because it was a new thing, he'd never been on the stove before (to my knowledge), and I thought it was very funny. I probably should have just shoved him off the stove instead of pausing to laugh and take a picture. Today I was cooking ramen and he jumped on the stove and, well, now he's missing a portion of some of his whiskers, and my downstairs smells strongly of singed cat. Funny, also sad, also funny.

November 15!

Here there are irises blooming because we are still having crazy things like 60+ degree days in the middle of November.

November 14!

Believe it or not, this is my cat thinking that he's hiding from the vacuum cleaner.

November 13!

Surprise! Today we have a video of Bear learning how to count diapers.




Two! Six! He has all the animal sounds and all the colors (including silver and gold) down pat, so apparently next we'll work on counting.

November 12!

today I am going to cheat a little bit. I think technically I am supposed to post a photo that I took today, but it's 6pm and I'm still in bed, so really there are no photos to take or post or anything. and, this is a photo I've been meaning to post for a while.

During the weeks of the equinoxes/equinoces?, DC turns into a henge, because we were designed to have streets that line up directly east-west. So if you go stand in the middle of one of the letter streets at sundown on either the vernal or autumnal equinox, the sun sets right down the middle of the street. It is pretty close for the few days before and after, too.

Anyway, here is my photo from the autumnal equinox this year (Sept 23), from L Street, SE:

Also I post this because I miss the long days. Winter Solstice, come quickly!

November 11!

Apparently I am only interested in taking photos every other day!

This was my snack:


Animal crackers and apple juice. So tasty!

November 9!

This is the best egg I poached today! I know it's not flipped over on itself like it's supposed to be, but it's nice and roundish! And then it jumped off of the spoon on to the floor, and it was so hot when I picked it up (duh) that it jumped from my hand into the garbage disposal as I tried to rinse it.

Jerk egg.

Pretty, though, right?

November 8!

Ok, so I missed yesterday. Sue me! No, don't, because it would be a waste of your time and money.

This is what I did today!

The weather was lovely and I think it will be one of the last days to be so lovely until spring, so Bear and I went to the zoo! We saw this alpaca, which Baby Bear would have stared at all afternoon, but we had a very important meeting at nap o'clock, so I had to tear him away to get him home in time. We also saw lions, elephants, a hungry growling tiger, a napping tiger, a sloth bear (very close to the glass! so cool), and the sad sad emu that paces in its habitat next to the zebras.

I love the zoo.

November 6!

Today it gets dark early, and also the trees are very bright. this photo obviously does no justice.

I learned a really excellent Ysaye Barnwell song yesterday and I will try to find a good link to it.

November 5!

Happy Guy Fawkes day!!!

So, let me explain my photo. It's NaDruWriNi, and I wrote a great poem about broccoli and then drew a picture to illustrate and then I took a picture and this is what happened:


more margarita!

November 4!

November 4 was a long day. A pretty good one, though!

It's rice, in the photo. A clever mother has improvised to make up for her lack of a sand table. It vacuums! Apparently you can put food coloring and make rainbow rice! I plan on stashing this one in the idea vault for FutureSpawn.

November 3!

Baby Space Monkey went to the doctor today so I went to Whole Foods, and he has RSV and bronchiolitis and I have some Tillamook cheese and likely a cold coming my way.

November 2!

Today started off not as much rough as ... well, it was as though I was being rubbed on a cheese grater.

But now I've almost finished cleaning up the havoc I wreaked this morning, and soon I won't remember that part, but the part I will remember is this:


Baby Space Monkey! He's 18 pounds and cut his first tooth yesterday. Which probably explains part of my morning. Also, he's crawling, and wishes that he could eat sammiches.

November Surprise! November 1 Picture!

Here it is, November again, and I almost forgot to do my post. I am trying to do Picture Month, because that is not one I have done yet!

here is what I did today:



Also, Bieber Bear finally has started saying my name! It sounds remarkably like "Wookoo" which I think is pretty good. His mom said "did he just call you Wookie?" and I said that I'd take it. His words are crazy out of control exploding.

Things For Which I am Eternally Grateful, episode IV

The bus driver who honked at the other cars to get them to stop while Bear and I were crossing the street today, so that we did not get hit when it was our turn to cross

That Baby Bear holds my hand EVERY TIME when we cross the street, 99% of the time without fighting

The sound a cow makes

Fresh peaches from the market

Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything, given to me by my sister, for whom I am also eternally grateful

The DC Public Library website, which has recently become much more user-friendly. Also the librarians there, who are abnormally and sometimes unsettlingly friendly and helpful, and

Otter Pops.

Trash fairies

Bear and I have some sort of hack routine for our weeks, because three days in a row with the same person can be tiring. Monday is eat snackylunch in a coffee shop (to practice being polite in public and also to try eating new foods), Tuesday is library day, and Wednesday is adventure day! Where we try new things, or go to a new place, or at least a fun place. Today we went to the new Playseum! It is brand new on Barracks Row and it is kind of expensive ($6 a person, even for the little ones) but holy wow it is so worth it on a hot day like today. Also I guess there is this other place called the Family Room where I have not been yet, because it has stairs that look intimidating. I am pretty sure these two places are making SO much money.

Baby Bear and I spent almost 2 hours there and went only to two rooms - the room with the bunnies and turtles and zebra finches, and then the room with the train table, and we pretty much spent the whole time in the train table room. Which means that if/when we go back, we still have the sand room, the painting room, the dress up room, the pizza-making room, the cupcake-making room, and the million other rooms to explore. it sucks that we could only be there for 2 hours, but, you know, lunch and naptime.

Big and Tiny were there, too! It was nice to see them because I haven't seen them for about a month and a half. Tiny is crawling! She's so cute. Tomorrow morning is when I get to hang out with Space Monkey! He's a winner.

The DC DPW fairies bestowed a lovely gift on us this morning - a trash can! We got a recycling can a few weeks ago. Now, hopefully no one will steal them again, or blow them up or put some stupid trash in them, and also hopefully the trash people will always take our trash! everyone that lives on our street puts their trash behind our house because we are at the mouth of the alley and the trash truck doesn't go down the alley, so there are always piles and piles of trash right behind the house. Sometimes the trash guys don't pick it up because it isn't always in cans, or other people put their stuff in our cans and, I dunno, maybe the trash people are all "man these people have so much trash I'm not gonna pick up all their stupid trash" when really it's the trash from, like, 4 or 5 houses at least. Anyway, thank you, DPW fairies!

that's not my blog!

Today is Stellina's 3rd birthday!! I went to the toy store today with BieberBear (who came out of the experience with a new toy helicopter, the lucky dog) and we got Stellina a card, Cloudette, and That's not my... coloring book! which I kind of want for myself. So she will get her presents on Thursday when I take her to camp and then I get to hang out with Space Monkey. I guess I am invited to her birthday party on Sunday but it is in Alexandria and it will have many 3-year-olds, so as much as I love Stellina I do not want to add to the chaos. I am thinking about it.

it is also Cleo's birthday (that's a link to Cleo's mom's blog which she hasn't updated in a while, because um... parenting is really hard work) and it is weird to me that I remember being so excited for Cleo's birth and I have seen lots of pictures of her and I still have never met her, but since Stellina is the exact same age, I actually remember the day of Stellina's birth long before I ever knew Stellina.

We had some squash plants but then I weeded around them and it turns out that the weeds were giving them shade and holding water in the soil, so now the squash plants are dead. RIP Squash plants. I do not think that this year we will have a water pipe burst to rescue the squashes, but ... who really knows. I am not super great at keeping plants alive. Over the span of my life, I have about a 75% success rate at keeping plants alive. I'm sorry, squash. Requiescat in pace.

Recipe for a delicious snack

Here is a recipe for the snack I made after I was done eating my ditalini pasta with homemade pesto!

Recipe for plum-peach-vanilla yogurt:

Step 1: take out the vanilla yogurt from the fridge that you bought a while ago but you've been too bored by to eat. Pour some of this into a bowl!

Step 2: take out the plum-peach jam that your mommy made from the cupboard and packed in your suitcase the last time you went home, pry open the jar. Spoon a generous amount of this delicion into the yogurt bowl.

Step 3: MIX INGREDIENTS

Step 4: ENJOY

Pairs well with toast coated with a moderately thick layer of plum-peach jam. Also pairs decently with a glass of water and various vitamins and supplements.

As I surrender unto sleep

Thanks, Eric Whitacre, for the song stuck in my head this morning.

Yesterday I finished a four-day, three-night marathon with BiebzBear. His parents went on vacation, and his other babysitter had him one day, and grandma had him part of another day, but goodness. it is much different to not have a 5pm end-time in sight and instead know that you have three more days. Highly effective birth control. he only woke up once during the night on each of the first two nights, and then slept 11 hours the third night, which was preeeetty excellent.

Then I went straight from there to Stellina and Space Monkey's house! They are great. Space Monkey is huge already, but really he is still pretty tiny. Neither of them had napped, and Stellina had already gotten a bath by the time I got there, so both of them were super exhausted and ready for bed. Of course, bedtime still took an hour and a half, but that's not so bad. Stellina fell asleep either before I left her room, or just after, because when I checked the video monitor, she hadn't moved from the same position she was in when we were singing "Baa Baa, Black Sheep." Space Monkey was up for a little while longer, and we had some good sleep-on-the-shoulder time after he was done with his last bottle. He's just so warm and wiggly and perfect and if you grab his toes and smile at him he breaks into this ginormous grin and spits bubbles. Also as a side note, I really do love the Miracle Blanket. Space Monkey can kick out of the feet bucket but man it makes him calm.

I had a long conversation on Thursday with Stellina and Space Monkey's mama about how we don't know how to have normal, grown-up, intellectual conversations with people anymore. I can think critically about infant and child development, especially now that I am reading all the books, but it is getting harder for me to wrap my brain around certain things now, like explaining how all the things in that Alanis Morissette song aren't actually ironic, and also that race is not a real thing but is just a social construction. There is only so much room in brains! And mine is getting filled up with feeding times, nap coercion, and poop. So that's kind of what's happening with this blog. Sorry.

Remember that Stellina is blognamed Stellina because at 14 months when I met her she loved to walk around the kitchen in counter-clockwise circles? She will be 3 years in 2 weeks and when we went out in the backyard yesterday the first thing she started doing was walking big counter-clockwise circles. Also she can dress herself and speak in whole sentences and peel her own bananas, even though the way she says banana is more like the French word for pineapple (ananas), and I blinked and wonder when that all happened.