Fun with Grammy's Yarn

Grammy is crocheting an afghan for Matilda and brought it along to finish while here on vacation. Matilda is just as bad as the cats when is comes to assisting and had a blast with the yarn ball. We had to intervene several times as she would go running off into another room while still tangled in yarn and pulling on Grammy's stitches. Threading her toes.

Hungry Artist

Due to the fires this week (which are not threatening us directly, but have resulted in horrible air quality) we have been trying to stay entertained with indoor activities. In desperation I have been busting out the art supplies. Matilda really loves to color/paint/sculpt for about 30 seconds. After that it is all about how much of the crayon/marker/paint/play dough she can eat before I say uncle and pack it all up. This photo does not really do justice to exactly how black your teeth look after eating the tip of a black marker. I can also report that black markers really look blue on the other end and someone at the diaper service is going to be perplexed this week. The markers which were non-toxic were less concerning than the Play Doh which very clearly said "not for consumption" and had no reassuring non-toxic statement. I think next time I will try out my mom's old play dough recipe.

Stylin'

Baby Proofing

I have yet to see onions mentioned in any baby proofing tips. Yet, onions are a serious problem in the RD Mama household. Matilda will not stay out of the onion bin and consequently the entire house is frequently littered with onion skins. This was more of an actual hazard last year when she would choke on the skins. Now it is just a problem in the cluttered-household-makes mama-crazy sense.

Alive

Yes, fair readers, I still live and breathe. We just (if three days ago counts as just) returned from a two week east coast tour of family visiting and are getting back on track here. Hopefully I will soon return to my regularly scheduled blogging. In fact, I think I may try the post-every-day November challenge again so you can look forward to daily instalments of Matilda tales.
Making friends at her G-pop's (aka "bap") farm.

Oktoberfest

Too much Oktoberfest revelry can lead to emergency napping in the pumpkin patch.

Goats in Your Face

Frolickin'

How we spent our Friday. She is kind of a scowl-y frolicker.

18 months

To celebrate Matilda's semi-annual birthday today we went to the aquarium and baked a pie. It looks like she is petting the rays here, but really she was just trying to lick saltwater residue off the edge of the tank. Sharing her drink with a new pinchy friend. Yes, she did indeed dip the nasty kitchen sponge into the cream mixture for our peaches and cream pie.

Matilda's Room

Now that the futon is gone, we are awaiting the delivery of Matida's new mattress and bed to begin transforming our office/guest room into her room. As you can see she is already clearly claiming her space.

Tim & M inventorying all her toys. Kicking back on her new pillow and looking through her photo album.

I Heart Craigslist

I posted an ad to sell our futon yesterday at 3:43 pm. By 4:16 I had someone interested and this morning they picked it up. It feels so nice to have the big open space in our office that I want to start purging the apartment. With that response time I could clear out a whole closet while Tim is at work Monday!

Growth Spurt

Shirt: Too Short

Pants: Too Short

Shoes: Too Tight

Hammer Time

This past Saturday I ran my first post-baby race, the Nike Run Hit Remix. Thankfully the chip reader at the starting line malfunctioned, so I don't have to disclose my real race time. But overall it was super fun and felt easier than I expected. I think all that running pushing M in the stroller is getting me in better shape than I knew. I didn't take my camera but I did find this one for sale on the official photo site of the race. Somehow the racing chip glitch lost all record of Gaurav competing but we found proof otherwise. Also, this guy on Flickr has lots of good shots from the VIP lounge (including a random picture of Sarah's butt?) where we all got to recharge post race with a huge breakfast spread, Jamba Juice and beer. All the while being entertain by the musical stylings of Mr. MC Hammer himself. It was like going back in time. I also really enjoyed hearing Baby Got Back as we pushed through to the finish line. The whole thing was so fun that on the car ride home Sarah & Gaurav convinced me I should run the Muddy Buddy race in November. And poor Adam agreed to be my buddy!

Fashion Sense

Today Matilda & I had our first of what I assume will be many struggles over dressing. As I was getting out a tee shirt for her I kind of rhetorically asked, "How about this one today?" She shook her head no, said "owl" and pointed to the pile where the owl shirt normally lives. I explained that the owl shirt is currently living in the enormous pile of dirty clothes and wasn't an option. Instead I pulled out another tee and offered up a choice between the originally rejected tee and this new one. She flatly refused both and requested the owl shirt repeatedly. After some negotiation we settled upon this one with ants. And then went to work on that laundry pile.