An Olympic Evening

This weekend some friends and I celebrated the closing of the Olympics with a little party. Complete with Downhill Sliders*, Cob Costas, Curling Fries, Coleslalom, Shaun White-Cran-Peach juice and of course the proud sponsor of the 2010 Olympics Coca Cola.
We donned our sporty winter wear and had such a fun and silly time...


I had a wicked case of the day after blues after the closing ceremonies...but we are only 2 years from the Summer Olympics in London and that's not too bad!
In the meantime I will get excited over other things like: Greta has pigtails now!
And she holds my hand and walks with me in stores, and says things like "Here" when she hands things to me, and "Whas-at?" when she sees new things, and is generally being the most fun to be around.
Wow, proud much? (rhetorical question, but yes....yes I am.)

*Sliders is a term generally banned from this household. For it being a stupid word put to even stupider use. Really do we need to make burgers and sandwiches smaller to slide down our American gullets quicker and easier? (another rhetorical question...but the answer is no.)

Goings on...

Here I am.
I have had several things vying for my time lately which might excuse my absence from the blogosphere. Pleasant things mostly. First and foremost I should mention that Greta is walking and has been walking for weeks now!
(It's funny how the silliest things make it to blog but the big stuff like baby's first steps gets mentioned weeks after the fact.)
But there it is! she's walking! Sometimes a very cute scissor step, other times a sort of Igor foot dragging trudge, and most of the time the tiniest and perkiest little steps you've ever seen. Very cute:)
Also teeth! Four whoppers right on top.
Then there's the Olympics which I watch with dog like allegiance.
Last weekend I went to camp! With a bunch of girls my age which makes it a women's retreat I guess. However it felt more like camp since we snacked in our pjs, talked about underwear and hid baked potatoes in other campers sleeping bags.
And lastly...now this might give some of you a shock...maybe you should put down the beverage you are drinking so as not to spit spray it...I joined a gym.
Yep. A gym member. Gold's to be specific, where I will attend classes!
Still confused? That's ok, I understand. I know I have always taken a pretty strong stance up until now about not being uncomfortable on purpose (which is synonymous with going to the gym). But I like the "did something worthwhile" feeling afterwards and enjoy seeing some of my friends who also go there every morning to be uncomfortable.
So I bought my first pair of real spandex and a yoga mat (both items I used to silently judge) and plan on making a complete exhibition of myself as a total beginner!
All in all it is going to be good for me.

Love Day

There was us...There was food...
Homemade cards...

Shenanigans...


And a lot of love.

Happy Valentines. I hope yours was special too!

Greta's Day Out.

This week Greta and I had a fun Mommy/Barley day out. We went to the park to play on the swings (a first!) and then the library to feast on some books. Meg came along and took lots of lovely pictures here are a few*...

Yeesh! Greta looks more and more like her dad by the week. She is also starting to get the hang of outings more, and going out with her is becoming more fun-tivity and less stress-tivity as she learns to interact and be content with her surroundings.
So cool:)
Stay tuned for teeth! She's working on 4 uppers (finally). One of these mornings she is going to wake up with a full grin. (The thought of which is simultaneously exciting and kind of creepy.)

*You can see the full day posted on Facebook.

Weird and Wonderful Things...

I'm beaming.
It's because I'm a mom, and do you know how I know? (besides the obvious presence of birth child, and pants that don't fit the same.) Because I do weird and wonderful things with vegetables and soar on cloud nine afterward.
Greta LOVES pasta, particularly mac & cheese (sound like anyone you know?) but I refuse to have a child who eats only mac & cheese, so here is where the weird and wonderful comes in...
Monday night I made a home made Mac and snuck in shredded carrots and fresh things like herbs to add extra flavor (so she doesn't turn out to be a boring eater) and health (so she can live to eat another day.) I smiled and felt the satisfaction that life change brings:)
Then today as I was padding around the kitchen trying to avoid the mac & cheese box thinking something else would be better/healthier for our lunch but only wanting the mac & cheese box, I quietly relented but on my terms...
Voila! I give you Organic White Cheddar Florentine!A little garlic and chopped spinach and I called it Florentine. Greta loved it! I loved that she loved it! And again I felt satisfied that in this exact moment I was not just a lowercase mom (a mom by fact of nature) but a capital M Mom, one who rises to occasions and loves her children through things like vegetables!

A good afternoon.

I'm With CoCo.

And yet sadly "The Chin" is coming back (usurping) The Tonight Show. I felt like I needed to voice my disappointment publicly following Conan's last show, instead of grumbling to myself around the house.
"The Chin..grumble grumble grumble...poor showmanship...grumble...not even funny...mmrrrrrr..grumble." It is truly remarkable what awakens my ire. It is a great mystery, but very few things make me feel this *crinkly.
1. Board games, any board game, card game, group game, competitive activity played with any person of any age.
2. The Chinese Government ( 3 counts against them)
- exploitation of their Women's Olympic Gymnastics team...bunch of 12 year old girls.
- putting lead in their plastic
- and plastic in their baby's milk.
3. Leno giving Conan O' Brian The Tonight Show after hosting it for 17 years himself and then not leaving forever. That's bad.
But taking it back 7 months later after failing at his own show? That's worse. That's being an **Indian Giver.
Greta has being shockingly stoic about the whole matter, but I feel instinctively that her little heart also carries a small weight of sadness. She's sleeping it off right now but I think she will be OK. Children are so resilient aren't they?

*Crinkly is a term I coined when my insides feel like they are being crumpled up like a paper bag...a tense sort of anger.

**Can we still say Indian Giver? I know it was like the worst thing you could say to your friends in the 80's, but is it PC anymore?

Antics

It has been a while since I have posted a true Barley update! So here's how we're looking. According to her 1 year checkup a couple weeks ago Greta weighs a handsome 21 lbs putting her in the mid/average weight range. She is our little beanstalk and is still in the 98th percentile for height and the 91st for her head...good sized noggin, lots of brains.
Her favorite play time activities these days are climbing into her toy basket to read, stand, and generally take inventory of her stock. (I took these pictures with my phone, so yeesh on the quality.)She looks like the captain of her own little ship as sometimes she pushes her tub to various desirable locations in her room before getting in. Other times she is looking for leisure time and will just 'soak' in the corner with her arms on the sides enjoying the view.
But it's not all soaking in the tub for her, she is learning about those legs too and has been loving her new walker that her Nana and Papa got for her.She loves to push this little thing around, and sometimes we will open all the doors in the upstairs for a true marathon. When she's not pushing this, she is pushing her books, rugs, step stools, iphones (when she can get 'em) and cars around the room.
It's so neat to see her pushing around her little cars around and totally getting it!
One of my favorite new antics of hers though is how she talks on the phone. (I love that they reissued all the classic fisher price toys and brought back the chatter phone! I totally had this phone when I was little.)
She loves to talk on her phone. She puts the receiver up to her ear and one of us will put our hand over our mouth to 'disguise' our voice and she thinks it's the coolest thing that the President, Buck Shaw*, and The Captain of Fun has called to talk to her.
Actual phones aren't mandatory she will talk to books and toys too, and if you think about it her books more closely resemble our phones than this guy on wheels.
As for her health, she is going in on Tuesday for her kidney ultrasound and a talk with Dr. Margaret. Hopefully, good news!
And that's the Barley update!

*Buck Shaw is my 'Brokerage Professional'. The fictitious character I claim a close business acquaintance with, when I need a legitimate and reliable source for bogus information. ex: "Buck Shaw told me the other day that it is important for mothers to eat the last cinnamon roll...something about the folic acid being good for sharpening instincts."

Drum roll please...

Ladies and gentlemen the results are in...And you guessed it!
Kent was Joe Strummer from The Clash, rockin the slicked back hair and those white arms the ladies all scream for.
I was Steven Tyler from Aerosmith which is a pretty easy recipe to whip up, just don't condition your hair, put on everything you own, and open wide! Greta was our very own Thom Yorke from Radiohead, complete with Kid A t-shirt and chocolate beard.
Thanks for playing!

Name that Rock Star!

Our little friend Noah had a rock star themed birthday party today, and (of course) we dressed up!
Can you guess who we were?
*I will give you a clue that tattoos and insignia are big hints into our identities.
I'd love to hear what you come up with!

The Holidays (after the fact)

The holidays are over and I feel oddly relieved. It is time to de-clutter, dust, and set our lives to rights for a brand new year.
We had such a good Christmas (if anyone even cares a week after the fact.) We feasted in jolly paper hats at my mom's house and enjoyed the comforts only a mom can bring to a holiday. Aren't mothers the best? Food is better cooked by them, boo-boo's (no matter how minor or made up) are better soothed and sheets are softer in the beds of their houses.
So we enjoyed these comforts and then scooted Christmas day over to my dad's. He shares a birthday with Jesus and proper respects were to be paid on both accounts.
Aren't dad's the best?
No one's driving is safer, knows more about fix-its and warranties, and is better at instilling calm where a woman wants to instill riles.
So we enjoyed these comforts then scooted over to my granny and grandpa's for what is always "The best meal I've ever eaten" and a lovely chat.
New years was equally nice as we just hunkered down at our house to play poker with friends and eat and drink the new year in, leaving the parties and reckless driving to other more brave/foolish people.
And Welcome 2010! I have been looking forward to you. Partially because it felt like 2009 was 2,000 and 9 years long (comes from having a now one year old I suspect.) and also because I think it has a classy ring to it.
I look forward to your offerings.