Monkey in the Middle

Happy Halloween! 

Beauty School Drop-out

It's never good to find scissors and clumps of hair hiding together. Never.

One of my children (I'm sure you can guess who!) decided to give herself some bangs. Nice.

Portlandia

More often than not, lately, I feel that I have been written into a scene from a Portlandia episode. Yesterday's example:

Scene: Grocery market, check-out line.

Me, casually emptying the contents of my basket.
Checker: "Can you pass your bags to me?"
Me: "I'm so sorry. I forgot them today."
Checker, eyes narrowing: "Forgot them? With this many groceries, you want me to use paper bags??"
Me: "Again, I'm so sorry. I promise to re-use the paper ones or recycle them."
Checker: "You know, you look pretty put together today for someone who claims she forgot her bags."
Me: "I'm Catholic, you know. Just thought I'd mention it so you know I'm already feeling pretty guilty about the bags."
Checker: "Are you even wearing lip gloss? But you forgot those bags, huh?"
Me: "Did I mention my Catholic guilt?"

Yep. And I even double-checked the scene for hidden cameras. Nope, this is just urban Portland for you. True story.

Good thing she didn't see me hopping into my, gasp, SUV! Can you imagine? Better safe than sorry. Next time, I'm carrying my bike helmet into the store with me-- even if I do drive!

For shame

Now that we're getting our first rain of the fall (after an incredible 82 days of sunshine), look who has decided to snuggle up on our porch. A neighbor kitty. A cat. A feline.

I'm fairly certain Greta is rolling over in her grave right now. For shame.

ONE-derful Ryan

It's hard to believe our sweet baby boy is now one year old! 

Ryan's Very Hungry Caterpillar

 

This? You want me to eat this green thing? Are you sure it's not a vegetable?

Hmm...so far, a little tastier than your average vegetable. 

Yep, a lot tastier.

YUM.

Can I turn one again tomorrow? 

Now, on to bathtime. 

Just look at those fly swatters. This boy just melts our hearts. 

The (not so) very hungry caterpillar

One of Ryan's favorite things is the Very Hungry Caterpillar book. He loves those shiny oranges with caterpillar-sized holes in them, the lollipops and chocolate cake, the egg on the green leaf. He will spend 10 minutes just paging through the book. Ten minutes is a lifetime for an almost one-year-old, in case you haven't been around one of them lately. A lifetime, people.

So, for his first birthday, we decided to give him his very own Hungry Caterpillar party with the grandmas and papas. We hung some signs, including a homemade welcome sign crafted by Lucy.

 Mary made a sign, too, which read: "World's Best Baby! Happy Birthday Ryan" and to prove her point, the sign also read: "No crying!" and "No pulling heads off of dolls (yet)!" She adores her baby brother. Both girls do. And even though we're sure he will outweigh them within the next year, they can't help themselves but to lift him up and embrace him.

 Ryan loved the singing part of the cake festivities!

But, it turns out our little caterpillar wasn't very hungry. He far preferred his familiar oatmeal and sweet potato puree over the buttercream frosting and cake. Lucky for him, he'll get another chance to try some cake when we celebrate again on his actual birthday with our pizza night families. And, if he's still not a fan of the sweets, I'll bet one of those adoring big sisters can lend a hand.

Look over there

See my "pals" on the right of this page? There's a new one in the line-up-- the adventures of those wild and adorable Alaskan Clucks.

I'm not sure what is more impressive-- the fact that Em has started a blog without any Internet access at home, or the fact that she's done it without any running water at home! Maybe the library is serving dual purposes these days...