happy birthday (and christmas) david!

dave, i love that i cannot hear acdc without thinking of high-school you, your old blue truck and the mullet you sported. and then i think of your truck catching on fire -woops- and your replacement cars, first the 280zx, shortly followed by the geo metro whose bumper you "sewed" back together with big metal wire/staples, instead of just getting a new one after it was ripped off. i love your intense frugality and the incredible (although sometimes unsightly) solutions you come up with in order to save. the incessant "guess what? i love you!" game you played with little boy bobby still makes me smile. i cannot believe, but dearly love and am secretly jealous, that with a little soldering you turned a bike into a unicycle and legitimately taught yourself how to ride it all over our bumpy dirt roads. you are so quick to give a full, hearty laugh at my jokes and stories and that alone makes me love you forever. yes, you once rocket-launched me across the entire front room when i refused to get out of your way, but you also didn't yell at me when i borrowed your white shorts and then ruined an entire load of all your new clothes with the tube of lipstick i left in the pocket. it is amazing and so impressive that with a full family you went back to college, worked like mad and officially revealed that you're an engineering genius. i still can't believe you and erin have SIX kids, but i love the happy chaos and love that rules your home and how you are all just perfect together. when i was about 6 years old you pulled me out of too-deep water in a friend's pool just as i was about to start panicking for air. i was so relieved and grateful to have you as an older brother at that moment, and the feeling has stuck. happy (late) birthday dave. i love you.

intentions

i've had plans to post this and that of the happenings and makings (some finally! yay!) of the past couple weeks but time has gotten away from me. perhaps in january i'll do a christmas 2007 retrospective (what's not to love about a retropsective?). for now:

making a list

even after pulling out several to save for eve's birthday, the amount of gifts under last year's tree was embarrassing. so this year i've adopted a little rhyme (courtesy of my sister sarah's neighbor's sister- wow. that's annoying to type, let alone read. . .) to direct my shopping:

"something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read."

i've puchased and wrapped every gift for the girls (not much making happening this year. i blame baby.) and i have it on good authority that santa has his all ready to go too. . . maybe shoved in a closet somewhere until christmas eve.

since the girls are oblivious to this blog until a picture of themselves appears, i will show some of what we've gotten to fulfill our little rhyme. my favorites, as always are great books and simple toys:

something to read:

zoo-ology by joelle jolivet for eve (this is a bigger than normal book with great illustrations and groupings) and ABC by bruno munari for ruth. both are really going to work out for me; entertaining the girls for long periods of time and without getting too burdensome to read to them over and over. both are more about observing and identifying things than following a story-line. i've gotten some other great books as well (i only have so much self control) which will be great for reading and looking at. perhaps i'll do a post (or five) at some point featuring my favorite children's books.

something you want:

i think i spoil my children. but in my defense, eve came up with the request for a camera on her own ("i want that sing that mama has with the pictures on it and you push it for the pictures"). she has been asking for it exclusively for over a month now. she'll be in heaven and i'll get the chance to fix all the settings on my own camera. thank you ebay. i'm not sure ruthie's gift will be as exciting. after watching her pretend play with a barbie at church for nearly 25 minutes today, i'm questioning the blocks, but i love them and am hopeful we'll have a great time building together.

also wrapped up in the closet we have things to wear (jeans and ballet slippers), things they need (umbrellas and underwear) and things ready to stuff in the stockings- courtesy of santa. and i'm fairly certain santa will be giving:

little doctor play kit for eve. perfect, given all the appointments for the girls and myself lately. and duck on bike for ruth. really entertaining. the duck will join the many other tin toys in our home (ride-a-rocket, humming spinning top, russian police car and ambulance among others) almost all by schylling, one of my favorite tin toy companies.

now i just have to start working on chip. not nearly as easy as the girls. . .

"o tannenbaum. . ."

"wie treuse deine bletter. . ." i can't rememeber more than those four (horribly mispelled, i'm sure) words from the german version. but that doesn't change my love for the christmas tree and the season that welcomes it.

after the untimely and crunchy death of last year's tree i have been determined to get my hands on the freshest tree possible. and i did. this year the holiday dream of cutting my own tree came true. there was no snow, no boots, no hot cocoa or axe involved, but there was my family, a saw and plaid wool. not bad.

in fact, it was nearly perfect; the tree, the crisp and clear dusk, the looks of horror on the girls' faces when the tree fell, the birds flying from tree to tree. we even managed to get our 8'8" beauty home from from rhinebeck, ny strapped to the top of the car without too much trouble, thanks to the massive amount of twine strung through and tied all over our little two-door. we had to get in and out through our windows for the food and bathroom breaks on the way home, but i think we all secretly loved it (it will always make me feel like one of the dukes of hazzard). once we were home we all stayed up until 11pm turning our pine into a legitimate christmas tree.

now my home is filled with freshness, winter, rebirth, love and charity all rolled into the scent of fresh pine. which will stay fresh until the day i take it to be chipped into tiny little pieces for the local parks, if all goes according to plan.

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and thank you to all for your excitement and kind wishes. after another scare and resulting ultrasounds this past thursday i can confirm that we are both doing well and that this IS a boy. (i have two more pictures with giant arrows to prove it).

happy birthday (week) mom

i love you mom. i love that you made all seven of us volcano-shaped mashed potatoes "erupting" with red colored gravy that destroyed the broccoli trees and cheese-cube houses on it's way down. i love that i can't count how many times i've seen you laugh until you cry. i am in awe when i think of throwing a wet, dirty dish rag at bobby, missing and hitting you in the face instead; you were so calm as you peeled it off your glasses and slowly handed it back to me. i love thinking about the hours you spent patiently helping me with my third grade robot project. i love the power you had over us with just one look. i love, though will never really understand, how you rarely have a recipe for something, you "just make it." i love all those songs you were constantly humming, singing or whistling and the fact that you are, to date, the best whistler i have ever heard. i love that you gave us each our very own box of sugar cereal each christmas. i love the motherly pride that frequently beems from your face and how you have always been so quick with your praise. i love that you seem genuinely pleased to talk with me, even if it is the third call full of questions that day. i love the absolute confidence you have always had in dad, yourself and all of your kids, no matter what. i love that you are still one of the very first people i want to talk to about news in my life, good or bad. i love you for always being able to help me see the good and hope in hopelesness, that you have always been a safe haven to come to.

i love realizing more and more each year how much of you is in me. and how much happier my life is for it.

happy birthday week mom. i love you. a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.

in production

thanksgiving was fun and delicious and the visit from (a part of) the joneses was even better. i've had no time to check the internet, emails or even voice mail and it has been wonderful. apologies to all who've been ignored the past week and a half. i'll be getting back to you shortly.

my projects have been fairly pathetic lately. too lazy. too tired. too unmotivated. and here we have the big reason why:

yes, child number three is in the works. coming up on 17 weeks. and the word from the dr who gave me an ultrasound a few weeks ago after some mystery pains is that this one is a boy. a boy. it took a few days to get over the fact that we wouldn't have three little girls all in a row- we love girls- but now we're really starting to embrace the idea. the idea of a mini chip running around makes me laugh and will be crazy. although if he follows chip's course, i'll be lugging him around and spoon-feeding him for the first two years until he decides to start running away and talking non-stop. but at least he'll be entertaining.

to all dear friends who are finding out about this for the first time here, please accept my apologies. know that i love you and if i weren't so lazy and tired i would have called or at least emailed you personally with the news. but by kid number three, it's kind of no big deal right??

in order to preserve some of the child's dignity i have not included the ultrasound with the giant arrow pointing to his privates. really? do they have to use that giant arrow? at least this time they didn't type out "it's a boy!" along the top like they did with ruth. except ruth was a girl, clearly, and they knew that.

kids, be thankful

that has been the theme of our last two family nights. we're trying to get them to understand thanksgiving as much as they can. even more, i'm really trying to push the spontaneous (rather than prodded) "thank you." no major progress so far.

last week: thanksgiving jar

jar decorated with pieces of tissue cut mostly by eve and glued on by both girls (when i could get ruth to stop using the glue stick like chapstick). filled with strips of paper listing all the things we're thankful for. some of eve's: jungle book, "smashmallows," drawing on paper, princesses and all paraphenalia she owns or could think of relating to princesses. some of ruth's: eyes, clothes off and "didi boots" (dora and boots). once she thought of dora and boots she wouldn't say anything else, so that's in the jar about seven times.

the plan is to continue adding to the jar until thursday morning when we will read them all to each other and then put a candle in the jar for a "very bootiful" thanksgiving light.

yesterday: the first thanksgiving flannel board story

more felt pieces to tell the story of the pilgrims, mayflower, plymouth rock, the wompanoags, planting, harvesting, feasting and (naturally) being thankful.

i ran out of time for a few major pieces like a turkey and squash/pumpkin, but the rocks and fish i made for the oregon commemoration came in very handy in telling the story in crossing the ocean and plymouth rock, so it all evened out. not sure how much they got from the "we can help and be so thankful and happy for each other" lesson, but they haven't stopped playing with the pieces this morning. and i'm ridiculously happy to have more pieces for the flannel board. i really love the flannel board.

open house

this is our place during the renovation just over two years ago. scary. even scarier knowing it was gutted only two days after closing because i was pregnant and impatient. but completely without a contractor or plan. i'm smart like that.

for a more thourough look at our place, check out our friend's recently launched website; renovation voyeur. you can read chip's report of our renovation, see some before and after shots, and even rate and criticize.

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ours is the apartment labelled "chip and katie, brooklyn, ny" (just in case).

burn victim

one guess who and how.

yes, ruthie. and yes, she was trying to find something to get into. the resourceful little girl made her way onto the counter and turned a ring on the stove to the hottest setting. once the burner next to her (lucky for her little bum or tummy it was not the one she sat on) got nice and red, she set her three little fingers down just long enough for a nice second-degree burn. i heard the moaning cry ruth uses only when she is really hurt, rushed out and found her holding her left hand and moaning "owie."

next we had 25 minutes of soaking angry ruth's hand in cold water and squirting ibuprofen into her open mouth. then onto nap time which started out with me standing next to her crib, holding her hand in a cup of water and, 20 minutes later, turned into me laying on the couch, ruth on my chest with her hand in water while she slept the next 90 minutes. wake up time came, the ibuprofen had taken its full effect and the little angel played the rest of the day without any complaint.

today she is very interested in the giant blister that has formed on her middle finger, but not bothered. there has been plenty of drawing and playing away with the sad left hand, which she officially prefers far above her right.

so maybe now she's learned that climbing onto the counter is a very bad idea? because trying to never let her out of my sight isn't working.

new shoes. finally.

chip and i have been fairly careful about sticking to a budget the past several months. we are each given a certain sum of cash at the beginning of each month to spend on whatever we choose. once we're out of the cash, we have to wait until the next month to do any non-bill, non-essential-to-living spending. consequently i haven't been buying much lately. mixed feelings. on the one hand; in control, smart, thrilled to be consuming less and prone to making more. on the other; feeling more and more annoyed and a little bit sad each time i walk out the door feeling less hip than i would prefer.

so, i let my vanity take the best of me and did some shopping this past week. some shirts, a really cute coat, several tights and two pairs of shoes. the shoes, as always, are making me the happiest. if i have a decent pair of shoes on i feel good about the world.

first up, these lovelies:

i addition to feeling a little bit marmy (something i get a strange exhilaration from) these look great with tights and a pencil skirt and make a terrific, solid click while walking. and, for heels (something i haven't worn outside of church for four years) they are decently comfortable. thank you frye.

second, much needed black boots:

these are the best knock-off of the boots i was in love with all last fall and winter and came very very close to buying. happily, these steve madden versions are hundreds less. sadly, there are some real reasons why they are less. but, fake leather interior and all, i'm happy to have some simple basic boots to tuck my skinny jeans into. that is, if i get some new (bigger) jeans. or stop eating cupcakes for every meal. maybe i'll just stick with skirts and dresses. loose dresses.

as always happens when i begin to buy, i'm finding myself wanting more and more and thinking of all the other great things i can throw my money at. so i'm trying to tap into my responsible self and be happy with what i have. instead of thinking that if i just get this one other thing, then i'll be set.