A new hat

It's been cold here the last dew days. Cold as in toying with freezing and a chance of snow. Well, ice is more likely. Either way Aoife needed a hat. So I pulled out this treasure from the vault of the past

It's a true vintage baby hat. I have photos of me wearing this at her age with my grandpa.

But it's pretty priceless on her

And now to go knock icicles off the tree before the branch gets too heavy and collapses on the chicken coop.

Thanksgiving part 1: family

Due to holiday schedules, new baby and other family business, we were able to host thanksgiving dinner and have a couple aunties come over during the week of autumn here in Texas. Seriously Friday the trees were green, Saturday yellow and by the next Friday void of leaves with this link was floating around the interwebs http://www.texasstormchasers.com/2013/11/23/new-winter-storm-warnings-watches-issued/

But for the previous week, things looked like this around here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Doorways

*

Here I am again; on the threshold of change in a doorway that appeared without my asking. Do I go through it? Do I stand still and do nothing?  Do I run screaming in the other direction, back to the comforts of life as it has been? 

Well, I'm in adventurous mood so I toy with the doorknob and peak through the keyhole. From the tiny bit I can see, it looks inviting and exciting on the other side. I hear whispers of the work it will take to open the door and even more work to stay on the otherside. Only I can decide if the work is worth the revelry seen through the keyhole. It looks so promising over there. The mound of work  growing at my feet, covering the key, is intimidating but manageable. 

If I can birth a child in a car, surely I can open this door.

------

*

 Photo borrowed from wikipedia

Season of learning

So we've entered the season of darkness. The time of year spent indoors. The perfect time of year for learning; specifically for learning a new handcraft or skill.

Last year I refreshed my embroidery skills with a little motivation from this project by SouleMama and this project I found at JoAnn's. And while I worked on it often, I was out of practice and literally had to pull out and resew nearly very stitch. So it still looks like this:

The previous year my writing and photography skills were developed when I start this blog. 

Before that I was preparing for my first days as a mother. 

Before that was mostly career and school related.

So what shall I look into learning this year? Well, I've always wanted to write a book of some kind. Perhaps this season will be spent researching a topic and engaging in writing practices and challenges. Perhaps when spring comes I'll have something to show from my practice and research.

Perhaps.

But then again, I asked Pete to get me a guitar for my birthday...

What's tugging at the edges of your curiosity this season?

Conversations with my 3-year old

 The sound bites of childhood need a little nod from time to time. Here are some gems. Enjoy!

April 24

Her: Daddy has 2 red spots on his body.

Me: Where? On his face?

Her: No. Right there and right there.

Me: Oh you mean his nipples.

Her: *Confused looked*

Me: Daddies have nipples too. They don't make milk so he won't get breasts. Only mommies make milk for their babies

Her: He still needs a shirt.

An early morning in May sometime:

*Thud*

*Jingle*

Hi minar (Artemis). * giggle*  let's go find my mommy

*Jingle to living room/pause*

You know where my momma is?

*Jingle into my room*

Hi! Suns up! 

Sometime over the summer

As we watch a waterbirth video

Her: is that where the baby comes out? Out your bottom? Not your belly button?

Me: yup. Do you want to be there when it happens?

Her: *starry eyed* yeah!

Nov 4

Get me outta here!

You want out of the car right now?

Yes!

You want to walk the rest of the way home?

Yes

By yourself?

No, you come with me?

How is the car going to get home? And all our groceries?

Oh..... Where's daddy?

At home with Aoife.

On Juno?

Yup. On Juno. Guess what street I just turned down?

Juno?

Yup. Can you see our house yet?

Yup ... Get me outta here!

Nov 11

Me: What do those nerds taste like?

Her: Like strawberries.... And magic!

Dec 10

Her: you be this really bad guy

Me: Why is he a really bad guy?

Her: Cuz he steals people's baby's and kills them.

Me: .... Yeah. That does make him a really bad guy. He should go to jail where he can't have any fun.

* nonchalantly tosses guy into storage bin and moves on.*

Yesterday. 

Me: "I lose!"

Her: "But we're not racing."

Me: "You can lose at other things. Like challenges and games. For instances, in the battle to keep this closet clean, I lose! Look at it! Its a mess! i don't even know where to start to clean it!"

She points at the cooler which I had just chucked in there. "Right there."

Jan

Her: momma you wanna Hold your baby?

Me: I am. I'm nursing my baby.

Her: no that's my baby, this is your baby (holds up herdoll she's had forever).

Me: I thought that was your baby.

Her: no baby aoife is my baby.

Me: baby aoife is my baby too.

Her, casually: no this is you baby. 

Me: so the baby I grew in my belly isn't my baby. It's your?

Her: and daddy's.

Jan 28

We were eating a stirfry and she politely asked, "Chopsticks pawease." We get her a pair and she very nonchallantly asks, "How do you use these things?"

Feb 

Prince fill-pup has become prince Phillip again, only now they sing " once EEpon a bween"

Now that she's four the game has changed slightly. Last night we lit a fire outside and watched a lighting display. Naturally, this brought out her creative side. Suddenly, we were "playing dress up" and I was Cinderella.

As my step-mother she said: your chores today are 

1 (counting on her fingers) sweep the floor

2 give lucifer a bath

3 give a bath to yourself

4 blow your noods (nose)

5 turn off the chrimpsus lights (the white lights that hang on our back deck)

6 turn off the fire

7 turn off the lights (I assume she meant indoors)

8 blow on the fire

9 and 10 I forget because I was laughing too hard and trying to remember the first 8!

Trick or Treat

The day started with a surprise treat in the mail that was quickly added to the walls of a certain girl's room.

Then we did a little coloring,

Set up the window display,

 turned on the lights and hung the spiders we had made the day before.

She wore new socks from Grandma (thanks again, Grandma. She wears a new pair everyday!),

While we enjoyed our magical backyard,

And then, finally, daddy came home from work and we could get ready to go!

I had to make a small addition once we arrived at our meet up house, before heading out with 6 other creatively dressed children. It was just cold enough to require a layer. As I pinned the wings to her sweater, I giggled to myself remembering a comedian's quip about being from Oregon if you plan your Halloween costume to include a winter coat. While not a parka, a wool hand knit is basically the same thing here in Texas.

For those of you concerned that her bag may look small, don't fret. She repeatedly dumped her treasures into a pull string backpack I was carrying. This is the real haul:

Some of this will be recycled into Christmas stockings or sent to work with dad. This is more candy than we eat in a year, and I want to keep it that way!

Happy Halloween! All Souls! Day of the Dead! Samhain! Hallow's Eve! Or whatever you choose to celebrate this time of year. I hope it was blessed with joy and your pets stayed safe. Mine was and they did.

Blessed be.

I know we've had a good day when...

At 6 o'clock the house looks like this: 

Or this

Or even like this

Instead of like this:

Especially since I have no idea whats happening on Facebook which pairs nicely with a calm feeling, instead of being crazy exhausted after spending a day cleaning and cooking all by myself while others chose to watch tv or play video games. Today's chores were voluntarily done before the toys came out so we could all play together. Screens were put to minimal use, until now. A rare, but beautiful, occurrence.

One I hope to repeat tomorrow.

Now lets take bets on how much (and who) gets picked up before bedtime...