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. . .

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.

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.

happy birthday ruthie!

oh ruth. when i was pregnant with you i knew you'd be friendly. i had no idea how crazy and entertaining and mischievous you would be. i didn't know about that stompy, floppy run of yours, usually with mouth wide open in a crazed smile. i didn't know you would come programmed knowing exactly how to push every single one your sister's buttons and get wild joy from watching her react. i couldn't have imagined your almost annoying ability to charm your way out of any trouble. i did know that you would love people and they would love you, but had no idea how quickly you would capture people's adoration. i certainly didn't realize you would be so messy or have such a need to apply and spread anything and everything to every surface of your own skin. everyday. i didn't know about the smearing of the frosting or the hummus or the massaging of your own feet with that morning's cream-of-wheat. i didn't know the immense love affair you would have with food; the singing about it from your crib, the talking about being "hummy" at least every 20 minutes, and the immense amount of food you can shove into yor mouth without issue. i didn't realize the frequency of the kind hugs you would give to your sister and how quickly you could unite with her against all the world, including me. i didn't know how intense and determined you would be, nor did i have any clue that you would be able to mimic my voice and yoga positions almost perfectly, the first time. i didn't know how hard you would make us laugh and how so many of the things that i love the most in your father are the very same things i love in you. and i could never have known how much i really do love you, and how through you i would love eve, your dad and life even more than before. so, happy second birthday ruth. i love you and am secretly proud of you for testing me everyday. just as any good daughter should.

++

while i was typing the last half of this, you got a chair from the dining table, pushed it over to the counter, climbed up and then ate/destroyed nearly all of the mini ganache-covered chocolate cupcakes waiting for tonight's celebraion. the uneaten/uncrumbled ones you smeared on your belly. all in three minutes.

halloween 2007

halloween came and went this year with its usual amount of stress (procrastination is my curse) and fun.

since we were having way too much fun with friends we skipped pumpkin carving this year (which is a good thing, ruthie is far too confident in grabbing and attempting to use knives as it is) and let the girls paint away on their special pumpkin. clearly, tempera paints aren't the best option for pumpkin painting, but it is washable. and when is ruth involved, that is all i care about.

halloween brunch. spiderweb and pumpkin shaped panckakes.

inspired by this post of jeanie's and sarah's comment on said post. i love my sisters. and the girls loved the pancakes which we ate with eggs and beautiful homemade applesauce. the pumpkin pancakes were made with the help of a copper cookie cutter to shape the batter. for the spiderweb pancakes i only had a spoon, although a squirt bottle of some kind would have been much much easier.

the costumes. alice in wonderland and the cheshire cat.

the stress that is a product of my own procrastination is something i'm used to and usually totally comfortable with, because i can always pull things off. not so much this time with ruthie's costume. i needed more time to make it more fantastic and less homemade (you know what i'm saying here, the homemade that looks kind of sad and neglected, not the homemade that we all adore). but, she had a costume and besides the occasional "it's piglet!" (which she totally looks like in these pictures although i swear not as much in real life) or "umm. . . stripey??" many people got it. and as always, together she and eve were a great pair.

the most gratifying part of the costume making process this year was that i did not buy one scrap of fabric, everything is from the very very large stash i already have around the house. for ruth, i made skin-tight pajamas from some knit and applied the stripes out of some wool felt i've had for years. there were plans to make a hat with ears which i think would have made a huge difference, but time and exhaustion got to me. so we went for little felt ears stuck to her head bobby pins. the alice dress was a compilation of two things i know how to pattern (i use that term very loosely) and make; bodice top and circle skirt, along with a peter pan collar, made using this tutorial which is so easy. yes, there are a lot of steps, but it is still so easy.

trick or treating.

or "treasure picking" as eve was calling it. the girls, along with pseudo-little-brother luke, all went together through park slope. another year and another great night. definitely beats having a friend's parent drive you nad your friends from house to house because they were too far apart to walk. eve showed the way at the first house and ruthie got the hang of it immediately. she could hardly be stopped from running full speed stoop to stoop, mountaineering up the stairs, holding her bag out, squeaking "chik a cheat," climbing down and running off to the next bowl of candy. i was not allowed to touch her and the few times i touched her candy bag i regretted it.

the girls were fast and determined for two solid blocks of beautiful brooklyn brownstone stoops (oh, brooklyn. . .) but then hopped into the stroller and crashed. perfect.

this morning i woke up to hearing the stove top beep- my clue that ruthie has climbed on top of the counter in an attempt to get last night's treasure. i shot out of bed, got ruthie off the stove top and amazingly convinced her and eve that yogurt was a better breakfast option than a mars bar.

honestly

since when does "stay in the bath, wash all that soap off and then we'll eat some lunch" mean "hop out, get the hummus from the fridge and wipe it all over your clean bodies. oh, and while you're at it, get the floor, the counter and the chairs too."? i normally leave these things to ruthie, but today eve decided to join in. and that explains the hummus all over ruth's back.

it's coming

halloween is in 20 days and i am still not positive about costumes for the girls. i'm thinking eve will be alice in wonderland and ruthie will be the cheshire cat. she'd be perfect with that belly of hers. . .

there will certainly be a lot of pictures posted when the costumes are complete (most likely one hour before the first halloween party we go to) but for now, i give you a rich family children halloween retrospective:

2004. sock monkey. here's hoping i get to use this costume again someday. one of my favorites. and yes, chip was the greatest american hero that year.

2005. the sad mouse. i was supposed to have a brand new baby by halloween of 2005. but the day came, ruth was still lodged inside of me and i was unprepared. so, we went with a store-bought costume that we just happened to have hanging in the closet. thanks jeanie!

2006. little red riding hood and the wolf. or the aardvark. you choose. i'm kicking myself for not doing a proper photo shoot, the girls were so adorable together. trick-or-treating in park slope last year is one of our very favorite brooklyn nights of all time. eve would hurry from stoop to stoop with all of her candy bouncing out of the basket and littering the sidewalks as she ran. can't wait for this year when ruthie can run right along beside her. and pick up all the candy and claim it as her own.

buttercream facials

what, never had one? dora loved her treatment.

ruthie is completely unapologetic and will try her best to find that frosting tomorrow and do it all over again. because she is ruth.

and where was i? busy, very busy. reading friends' blogs and thinking about what a smooth day today was.

backlog: times three

dress for ruth.

june. modified vintage nightgown pattern.

dress for eve.

may. same as ruthie's, but looser fit and added tie/belt.

dress for me.

may. built by wendy simplicity. no darts, no elastic in sleeves.