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Birthday Princess
10.14.11 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Birthday Princess
Presents, cupcakes and Red Robin – what better birthday could a girl ask for?
The Rapunzel dress was sold out in Disneyland, so it made an appearance in time for her birthday.
Wish…
And tonight we do it again as girls are coming from far and wide for slumbers, spa and sillies until the wee hours with our royal birthday princess.
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Baby Mine
10.13.11 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Baby MineDear Guinevere,
It took me a while to appreciate you growing up. For the first six years of your life, I fought against time. It all seemed to be slipping by too fast – not just your early years but my thirties as well – and it made my head spin, the transition from a baby in my arms, to a crawler, to toddler, to preschooler and now as my elementary aged kid who reads, writes and solves equations with a speed and fluency that makes me wonder when the heck all this happened. It was really hard to watch those long stems that you call legs get longer and longer, making your skirts and dresses look shorter and shorter by the day, it seemed.
But lately you’ve showed me something pretty cool. You show us understanding, compassion and kindness that only comes from a child who has a little bit of maturity. You think of us as we think of you, you consider how you can make our, your Mama and Daddy’s, lives better, just like we do for you. When I’m sick, you make me a card. When I’m tired, you snuggle up close to keep me company. When I’m frustrated, you give me space, and when I need a hug, you climb onto my lap and snake your long, skinny arms around me in the biggest bear hugs you can manage. You can hold a conversation now about something besides what you, and you alone, are interested in. And the vocabulary you use astounds me!
But at your heart, you’ve decided that forever and always you’ll be our little girl. Today that means that you’ll sit in your room playing Barbies, crafting, drawing or pretending to be Mary Ingalls from The Little House on the Prairie books. While Hannah Montana stills seems to hold a special place in your heart, you are expanding your musical interests elsewhere too, with additions from Owl City, The Dixie Chicks, Taylor Swift and The Decemberists (you have no idea how cute it seems to me when you bust out with a line from ‘We Both Go Down Together’).
In the interest of staying forever our wee little one, you still say you’ll never marry, never have babies. But I hope against hope that someday you’ll find yourself in love, and that love will allow you to lose yourself enough so you will let go and become the woman you are meant to be, not just your mama and daddy’s little girl. Your future now, in your mind’s eye, is that of a teacher. Your hope is that, just like your teacher, Miss Jansen, you’ll get to work at the same school as me and we’ll teach together. Of course, that is when you’re not entertaining other career choices like being a comic book artist, wedding dress designer or professional singer.
So, on this day, the anniversary of the day you came into this world to take your first breath, the day the Dr. Madsen cut you from me, I celebrate the person who you are at this very moment. Because at this moment, you are absolutely perfect in every way. With you, seven was heaven, but eight will be great. And you know what? I know that because no matter how old you are, little girl, you are always your best self, you are always wonderful and I will always think the very best of you, no matter how old you are. Happy 8th birthday, Guinevere Rose!
Love,Mama
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Robots and Aliens
10.05.11 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Robots and Aliens
No, not Halloween. Daily life. Supergirl meets Optimus Prime right in our own backyard to join forces against EVIL. And by the look on Supergirl’s face, you know it’s serious.
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Every Day Star Wars
10.04.11 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Every Day Star WarsJude, at three, loves Star Wars. Not just any Star Wars, mind you, but the Clone Wars cartoons. When Bradley puts the original trilogy or the prequels on, Jude says, “No, Dada! Dose your movies! I wan MY Star Wars wif Anikin and the Snowpoopers!” No matter what they watch, though, at least once a day Jude gets out his guys and starts sorting, arranging and playing with them. On this particular day, the scene must have been Naboo, where Jar-jar lives deep under the water . Jude loaded his figures out to the hot tub to get some serious Star Wars play in.
Bradley first saw the galactic heroes right before we conceived Guinevere. We were in Target, and just having begun to own that he was indeed a full-fledged Star Wars geek, he began trolling the toy aisles just to see what George Lucas had been green lighting during his decades away from the force. What he found left him drooling: a Millennium Falcon (Aluminum Falcon anyone? Ha ha! I kid.) that rivaled the Millennium Falcon that he always wanted as a kid. I told him to buy it, encouraged him to get it for our future children, but being the thrifty guy he is he passed and we walked away under the assumption that it would still be there when we and if we did finally ever get those babies.
With Guinevere safely encased in my expanding belly, we returned to Target one day to look at the toys again, stopping specifically at the Star Wars section, looking specifically for the Millennium Falcon. But, it had been discontinued. Bradley was crushed. He had let the moment pass him by. At that point, he decided that he wanted to collect these toys for our unborn child who would be here in a few short months, and seeing how they had discontinued the Millennium Falcon after such a short run, he became very interested in buying the toys before they were discontinued. Thus, we have quite a collection. For ‘the kids’. We did manage to find a Millennium Falcon on Ebay later on. The going rate at that time was around $100.00 – which we paid nowhere near – and within three months they were offered exclusively at Wal-mart, so we broke our pledge to never shop there and bought one, a new one, so now we have two Milleni Falci.
Gigi and Bradley played with the Star Wars guys quite a bit. Gigi loves Star Wars like her daddy. She was often found play acting different scenes as Leia in her room (often as slave Leia, tied to Jabba/the bed in her bikini, which was a little disturbing…) or bathing with the ladies of Star Wars in the bath tub. But then Jude came along as Spaceboy: The Rocket Powered Baby, and it was like the clouds parted and we were given the final piece in our collection of Galactic Heroes – the boy who would be obsessed with them. And he is. Before he was even one year old, Jude was carrying his guys around in his mouth and clumping along in his little sweaty fists as he crawled through the house. And some things just don’t change. He now says all of those toys that his Daddy and sister collected over the years are his and only his, though he will share from time to time.
The entire Galactic Hero line of Star Wars pre-school toys has now been canceled and has been replaced by something similar, but slightly different. It was a little weird to say goodbye to an era so soon. Jude is only three and Gigi is only eight. Our prediction is that soon Jude will see these Galactic Heroes as baby toys and he’ll return them to his dad, in favor of the 3 inch characters that big boys like to play with. For his part, Bradley is sad at that thought, but also looks forward to the day when his toys are returned to him. But until then, Naboo (hot tub) Star Wars parties, kitchen table Geonosis battles and Hoth AT-AT snow scenes with our Galactic Heroes will be a part of our lives every day.
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Baking Day
10.03.11 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Baking DayOn Friday I had to work, but it was a non-student day, so Gigi stayed home with the boys. Bradley offered up a variety of options – going to the zoo, the science center, the park… or baking the day away. Gigi chose baking and focused on one particular recipe of interest called breakfast cups.
First she cookie cuttered out bread circles and put them into cupcake tins. Then, she added a little pinch of cheese and some veggie bacon.
Then she slipped them into the oven so the cheese could melt to make a moisture barrier on the bottom and the bacon could crisp. (Bradley said he would skip the bacon crisping part next time since vegetarian bacon tends to burn rather than crisp.)
The last step was to drop an egg into each cup and return the tray to the oven so the eggs would cook.
When they were all done, they looked and smelled delicious! Bradley and I thought they were pretty tasty and decided that next time we go camping this will be something we’ll make and take with us. The kids, though, were not so sure. They nibbled the edges, tasted here and there, but I can’t say that an entire one ended up in either of their tummies. Regardless, Gigi had a fantastic day, staying at home, cooking with Daddy. It was totally worth the time and effort!
