I’m officially deciding that for me to complete the 30 Day Photography Challenge, it doesn’t matter that I actually take the photo on that exact day. It’ll just work better for me that way. Plus, I don’t feel as much pressure…who needs pressure with something that is supposed to be fun anyhow, right?  I had grand plans today to photograph the Seattle Space Needle, but we had a mishap (mishap = puke) and I totally forgot about it. So I used an old (old = two days) image.

This post is kind of all over the place, but most of the images are from our trip to T-Town to visit Brian, Darcy & Dexter. The last time we were there it was summertime and we let Mags run in the water park practically nudie. This time we were all wearing our sweaters, but February was playing games with us and let us sit outside on their deck for majority of the afternoon.

I’ve really missed having some family photos taken of us lately and was hoping that I could use Darcy’s eye to capture a few, but Maggie had other plans. She was more interested in the ducks and dogs than posing with a cute smile. I had to let it go, which I find challenging at times.

There are few things in life that I love more than a good plan, so I struggle sometimes when something I’ve got on my mind doesn’t go my way. I sometimes see this come through in Maggie’s personality and I feel sorry for Barry – that he has to live with double planners. (double planners = bossy people)

Darcy did grab my camera and snapped a couple shots…none of which are great, but depict the situation pretty well. I was intent on trying to get Mags to take a photo on a stone bench, Barry was minding Syd and trying to convince me to forget about it, and Maggie was practically jumping into the duck pond. So it goes sometimes.

The rest of the evening was splendid. (splendid = running out of diapers and sipping on wine) The men had to make a heroic trip to the corner store to pick up some diapers after we discovered that Maggie really used the last diaper that we’d brought.  Bad planning on my part, I suppose.  Ironic for the girl that loves a good plan, right?

Just like most of my days today I wore jeans, a sweater and whatever else was on top of the laundry pile or at my finger tips. When I saw today’s picture was what I wore, I thought I’d dress it up a bit, but by the time I remembered to take the photo I was already dressed. Keepin’ it real for y’all. 

Yesterday we headed down to the beach to catch the sunset and watch some of the ferries come and go. I tend to forget how easy it is to access the water and what entertainment it can be down there.

We ran into other little families out to catch the last moments of the day, bundled up and pausing to point out the passing boats and trains. Every time we saw another kid, Maggie would stop, point and yell “baby” at the top of  her lungs. She thinks people are either babies or adults, she doesn’t quite grasp the idea of ‘kid’ yet.

Also, my parents got back from their vacation last night and spent the night at our house. I kid you not when I tell you that my dad strutted into the kitchen topless this morning just so we could see his tan. At first, we were all wondering where in the world his shirt was, but then after he puffed his chest a few times, we oohhed and ahhhed at how sun-kissed he was.

I am so happy they’re home. I still talked to them frequently while they were away, but it never felt natural (with the international phone charges and all) as it does when they’re home. I talk with my mom sometimes multiple times a day, so I practically felt like I was missing a limb sometimes not being able to share with her some of our shenanigans.

Maggie got more comfortable with the idea of talking on the phone while they were gone because on Sunday (the pictures of her in red) she was all a sudden talking to my mom without either Barry or I knowing it. We were both in different rooms and heard  a loud “Hi, Nama!!!” followed by a bunch of affirmative answers and stretches of silence. Sure enough, when I checked,  my mom was on the other end of the line.

Remember that I’m doing the 30 Day Photo Challenge? I decided that today’s self-portrait will be a shared one and it will also be a up close and personal one. The other option was one with Maggie picking her nose, so I’m pleased with this one.

You know how I was so jazzed up yesterday about February coming and book group? Well, it was all for a good reason. Last night book group was a total and utter hit. We were missing a couple girls, of the ones that were there, we actually all read the book! We eventually talked about the book (Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken) but spent the first part of the evening sipping on wine, eating cheese and laughing about wildly inappropriate stories….well, our version of wildly inappropriate, which is extremely tame. It was a splendid time, of course I didn’t bring my camera.

Today I was still feeling like I was walking around with a bit of pep in my step and then we went to the grocery store and Maggie puked in the middle of everything. It was entirely my fault too because I had given her some food to snack on in the car while we drove, thinking that we’d moved past the No Food in the Car rule that was established after our drive to Carmel. Turns out the girl still gets sick facing forward. The No Food in the Car rule stands.

So there we were covered in puke at the grocery store. Luckily it was right next to customer service and they had somebody out helping us pronto….I plan to never return to that store again, unless I am wearing a mask and wig. Maggie is fine and we’d been planning on going to the park, but the puke smell that we were wearing wasn’t going to get us any friends at the park, so we headed home to at least change. While we were at home it started hailing….which we ran around in, but that stopped being fun after a few minutes.

Instead of piling back into the car, we started to make our pizza dough for dinner and get ready for Maggie’s nap. Barry called in the middle of pounding the dough out and now I’m wondering if my phone is buried in the middle of one of the dough balls. We’ll find out soon enough.  When I put Maggie down for her nap, I realized that she was covered in flour and crusty dough because she really got into it while I chatted on the phone with Barry.

I guess the whole point in all of this puking and pounding is this: I’m still jazzed up. The sun is out and I swear I can hear birds chirping in the trees in the mornings when I take the dogs for a walk. They’re announcing that it’s almost time to get TOTALLY jazzed up and think about packing away our sweaters. But then it hails and we (the birds and me) are reminded that just because Mr. Sun gave a quick shout-out, by no means does that mean winter is over.

You know what though? We’ll just have to wait and see what Punxsutawney Phil has to say about that….he is the final word, after all.

And that is the end of this deliriously boring post. Smell ya later.

Before I go any further, I implore you to watch Maggie’s latest jam session on the harmonica. Last night Barry and I were sitting with her in the front room and she stood in the middle of the room just stomping her foot and playing her harmonica while we clapped along. She was rocking out and stomping her foot super hard, I had to try and record it. The video is a very toned down version of what she was doing minutes before, but the transition into the computer room meant she lost a little steam. Still funny though…at least to us.

We’ve been having so much fun here now that the snow is melted and our regular routines are back in full swing. Maggie has developed into somewhat of a boss (not sure where she gets that from…must be Barry) and is very, very specific about how we play games with her. Lately Barry has transformed back into Captain B-Nut and they rush up and down the hallway making all kinds of noise. Mags especially likes to run by the mirror to check herself out. (Side note: how cute is Barry? So cute. Best dad ever.)

Last night Barry and I sat on the kitchen floor while she ran circles around the kitchen and hallway. For the first part of the game we accommodated her bossiness and worked with her to say “excuse me” when bustling by. Once she figured out what ‘excuse me’ actually means, she kept saying it to us and the dogs, except it sounds like ‘new me,’ a perfect compliment to her version of thank-you, which is ‘nee-new.’

Eventually though we got bored with her telling US what to do (make sure our legs were stretched out, eyes closed, backs against the cabinets) so we started to throw her for a few loops by switching positions, singing and even kissing, she isn’t a fan of us kissing, but I suppose most kids don’t like to see their parents kiss, right? At first she was really sweet about us not doing it exactly how she wanted, but towards the end she really wanted to restore order to the game. Of course we appeased her.

I feel extremely  cheerful today…perhaps it is the sun peeking through the clouds or the fact that I have book group tonight and get to see some friends. Maybe I’m feeling good about finishing Maggie’s first year photo book (hallelujah!) and can move on to her next one. Yesterday in a fit of needing a change, we reorganized furniture in our house and Maggie’s room. Things here are in constant flux, but the changes feel SO good and fresh. Bring it on, Spring!!!

In these past weeks I’ve been bustin’ my tail to finish Maggie’s book, I’ve found myself looking at tons of old photos and I’m going to try hard to keep  myself from sharing a billion of them, but some are just too good to pass up. (See above image to get my drift.) Since tomorrow is February, my favorite month, I’m going to do a 30 Day Photography Challenge. Since there aren’t 30 days in February, I’ll have to swing into March, but that seems like a great transition.

Alrighty. Did you watch the video of Mags jammin’?  Hilarious stuff around here, folks.

Things have been semi-boring on the blogging front as of late, so I threw together a fantastic picture of my afternoon walk. If it looks like Maggie is floating it is only because there isn’t a fancy way to draw our backpack and she was a crucial part of the walk! I held back from putting a crown on her head, I felt like Syd might get offended.

Anyhow, I took the hooligans on a walk today and it was a workout.  Sparky would be a perfect dog if there were NO OTHER DOGS ON THE PLANET. It wasn’t so bad, but I found myself wishing that that pesky snow would return so he’d take another chill pill. But did you see that sunshine in my drawing? Yep, it was out in full force today. We came home and stayed outside for ages….Maggie even took her coat off and frolicked with the dogs. Yippee!

Maggie found the frisbee and it turned out that Sparky was a little more than excited to see it. I like how Sydney is a little bit confused about Sparky’s aggressiveness. And then Sydney and Maggie basically switch places with Sparky once again kind of being a bully about the frisbee.

Since I have now started to do an entire post about Syd and Sparky, I think it is time for me to shut this baby down and go do something else. I’ll leave you with this parting shot of Maggie enjoying one of her favorite books:

This past weekend after the snow started to melted away, we decided that we needed to get out of the house in a bad, bad way. So we made grand plans to hit the road and stop by and visit my grandparents and go on a walk without the dogs. (Since we have Sparky with us for a while, walking without them seems like a luxury!) When we arrived at my grandparent’s Maggie instantly checked the corner where all the noisy Christmas toys had been and discovered that they were gone. Not one to be disappointed, she headed to the back room, while dragging my grandma with her, and the two of them worked to carry some toys back out to the living room.

I love that she is familiar enough with their house to know exactly where they keep her toys. I also love that some of the toys that she plays with are the same toys that I played with as a child, I suppose that means they’re vintage. But the toys weren’t really the highlight of  the visit, it was the washcloth that came out with the toys that seemed to garner the most attention. At first she placed the washcloth on Sue’s head and they had a game together, where we discovered that Sue has the ability to talk exactly like Grover from Sesame Street.  But I digress….

Maggie proceeded to place the washcloth on everybody’s head and we all went along with it; however, when she put the washcloth on my grandpa’s head, he went wild in his typical Grandpa Elvrum fashion.  My grandma instantly tried to sush him, which I found hilarious because my grandfather doesn’t do quiet. It just isn’t in his nature and we love him all the same for it. But his reaction to this game was the same that I know he has had for all of his grandchildren, he just has such an unabashed adoration for us and now Maggie too, his first great grand child. He is a grandpa through and through.

Eventually the game ended and our conversation picked up, but a few minutes later I looked over and noticed that Grandpa and Maggie were quietly looking at the North Dakota picture book of our trip this last summer. You know what? Maybe he does do quiet after all.

 2 & 3. Maggie got to do a little baking project with Papa this weekend. She pretty much ended up with a brownie goatee and batter between her fingers.  Who doesn’t love sweets? 

4 & 5. If we have the headlight out in any capacity, Mags wants to sport it and will wander the house turning it on and off…so funny. Also, we went downtown Edmonds and picked up our very own copy of “Once Upon a Potty” and we got the potty out.  The consensus? The book is still out, but the potty has gone back in the closet, I’m pretty sure the only one who properly used the potty was Raggedy Ann

6. The markers have also been put back in the closet. 

7. I’m determined to finish Maggie’s photo books and have been working on them every spare chance. I came across this gem. She sparkled from the start. That’s my theme. 

I love it, but then I hate it too. The snow just isn’t giving up and I’m no longer thinking that we need to move to Montana because I’m pretty certain that there is more snow there than the twiddly amount I can see out my front door. I haven’t driven in almost a week because last year when I drove in the snow/ice I eneded up running into a pickup truck stopped in front of me. I had Maggie in the car and it was pretty scary, even though we were all fine.

That has meant that when I have the urge to strap Maggie into her car seat and skate over to somebody’s house, I decided that the backyard will do just fine and if we’re really crazy a walk around the neighborhood. I hate feeling like such a weather wimp. Then I remember that the news said it might be “impossible” for people to drive and that anywhere I could go is wholly unnecessary. So we’ve stayed home and I’m learning to embrace it.

Chaya came to visit the other day and we’ve dug out most of the Christmas presents that got stashed away for a day just like today. Tomorrow we’ll probably set up the basketball hoop from Greg and Linda, that’ll entertain us for who knows how long. Maggie doesn’t seem to mind being home…heck, she probably has a better deal out of it because she gets some one-on-one time in a major way without the distraction of a trip to the grocery store or other errands.  (That said, Maggie’s story time and music class we started with Caroline & Thomas are things I’d rather she didn’t miss.)

Cora gave Maggie a bunch of stamps for Christmas and we were able to use them and Maggie fell in love with pushing them onto the paper. The girl has a knack for making sure the ink gets pushed onto the paper, check out her face! I had a very hard time containing my laughter and by the time Chaya came over Maggie was practically a stamping expert. If you need anything stamped, Maggie’s your girl.

Besides stamping, Maggie has been assisting Barry in various tasks outside…..like wiping snow off the car I never drive and hitting snow off the bamboo that I hate with a stick. Yesterday we spent far too much time outside making a movie about Barry hitting snow off a tree in our backyard. In a strange way I hope you get to see it, but it probably wouldn’t make your life any better if you do.

So we’re surviving the big snow of 2012. I was informed today by Maggie to be quiet (imagine her curly head and index finger like a librarian shuuuushing me) because her baby was sleeping. I had to laugh because I totally get it, the need to be quiet when you’ve finally got your babe to sleep. Mags is such a good mama to her babies, I keep finding them swaddled around the house and earlier today I found one of her babies “reading” a book that Maggie had propped up.

I love it. I hate it. The snow really is beautiful and we’re fortunate enough to have a warm, warm home and lots to entertain us while we watch the flaky whiteness fall from the sky. I love the taste of fresh snow. I love the sound of snow….or the way it makes me really listen. I’m not going to make a list of what I hate about the snow, but I will say this: I’ll be glad when the roads clear up.