Our little Christmas cookie

Monthly update, and I'll make it quick. I love who Anneke is and what she's becoming. She is sweet, funny, and intelligent. I love how she loves what Dave and I love (so far)--books, music, the moon, numbers, cooking. She is a little shy and cautious--not super slow to warm up, but she needs her time to check out the scene from my lap, or from behind my legs, and that's just fine. I think she gets this from her dad, and I want to honor this about her even as I gently encourage her to see what might be outside her comfort zone. This photo was taken right after she visited Santa; I'll post the pictures later. She had resolved on her own she was not going to be shy this year and dutifully sat on his lap, because she had decided Santa was, after all, her friend, and he's the guy whose gonna bring her a Pillow Pet. The look on her face as she talked to Santa was serious, and it was clear she was not sure about the situation. But it was something she had decided to do, and she did it.

Christmas crafty

I'm definitely not one of those crafty hausfraus. Well, maybe I am...no, I'm not. In any sense of the word. But what's a girl to do when she gets hold of not only "Southern Living Christmas" but the 12/10 issue of "Martha Stewart Living"? She's gotta get busy on sloppy approximations of embroidery-hoop card wreaths and spray-painted seashells, that's what!

This is all Dave's handiwork, and completely from scratch. True, I was the creative consultant--it would have been a very utilitarian gingerbread house without my suggestion to adorn it with gumdrops, candy canes, and to mark it with a "B," very much like our own home.

"Southern Living" had step-by-step instructions on how to make a magnolia wreath, while "Sunset" had instructions on making a bay laurel wreath. This is my version and what I'm using for our advent wreath. I, uh, wouldn't be inspired to purchase this in a store and probably would have done a better job back in 4th grade, but process over product is what I always say. When it comes to making wreaths. For you liturgical-year color sticklers (and I know you are legion among my readers), I just couldn't find either royal blue candles or the purple/pink ones. But the interwebs assures me that it's perfectly respectable among Protestants to just use red. Please don't tell the altar guild.

Here is Martha Stewart's embroidery hoop card wreath, and I think it turned out just fine.

This was inspired by S.L. and M.S.L., a la a tree festooned with seashells and adorable little seashell candle-holders spray-painted gold and silver. I got out the ol' glue gun and affixed red satin ribbon and hung them on the tree. Here they are before they got the ribbon treatment.

I'm grateful...

...for more than I can list in this blog. But today it was for the slow, meandering pace of a toddler during a hike in Forest Park, which involved many interludes of puddle-splashing and throwing of leaves into the stream. We burned very few calories, but we saw lots of tiny mushrooms on a log, which I never would have seen without her guiding me.

Lovely Sunday part 2: turkey in the snow

And speaking of cliches, after our walk we left our smug, environmentally correct neighborhood in our Subaru to head out to Terra Farma in the Columbia River Gorge to pick up some raw goat milk and our very pricey, but very humanely raised, Thanksgiving turkey. And there was bonus free apple cider we got to press ourselves! Or, rather, Dave got to press it. As you can see, it snowed!

I woke Anneke up from a dead sleep so she wouldn't miss the fun. She never would have forgiven us for letting her sleep through this.

I've wanted to try this place since I moved here. My nieces' grandparents Bud and Gladys told me about it when they were in town for a visit eleven years ago. It's right on the Sandy River in Corbett. It was a lot fancier than I expected. I wouldn't make a special trip out there, but if you do pass by it, it's a really nice place to stop for cozy comfort food. I believe those in the know refer to it as "Chic-Dump" because that's the part of the sign that lights up.

Lovely Sunday part 1: love/eyeroll

Today was lovely, and started with a walk through the neighborhood. I love our neighborhood even as I roll my eyes from the effect of hippy-dippy overload. Could we get more cliche with our backyard chickens (which lead to backyard raccoons and rats, I might add), "edible landscaping" and nearby environmental school? And yet...it's all very nice, and makes for interesting walks. In the end, the eye-rolling is affectionate, and of course I appreciate the values reflected in all of these sometimes faddish, sometimes even sanctimonious displays. To say there are worse ways to use one's yard space is quite an understatement--like, say, putting in a pool.

Interesting detritus and yard-art:

The Sunnyside Environmental School chicken coop, which Anneke and I love to visit.

I love unkempt gardens in autumn.

This actually won't be Anneke's elementary school, but wouldn't you feel good about your kid wandering around this school yard every day? Each grade has its own little garden.

November update

What's life like for Anneke these days, and what is she up to?

Well, first the good:

She's very excited about the baby. She pats my stomach and says, "oh, baby, I love you," and we talk a lot about what we'll do with the baby when he comes. I anticipate a wee bit more ambivalence when he finally does come, but it's so fun to share this time with her.

Her imagination has gone through a growth spurt! Every moment is a new opportunity for pretend play: today she had a fork and a wooden spoon, and she told me she was playing violin. She crawls around the house pretending to be a kitty. She sings a lot, and often makes up songs, or puts new words to a familiar melody. Sometimes she goes off on verbal riffs which make no sense (to us) and remind me of scat singing or, if you're a total dork, of The Hybrid.

She just got her first haircut today! It took all of five minutes, and was a spur-of-the moment offer when I brought her in with me to my stylist to get a bang trim. I was so proud of Anneke--she sat very still through the whole thing. Actually, all morning she was a trouper coming along on errands, and she went a good 2-3 hours with no accidents. I gave her a big hug and kiss for being such a big girl when we got home.

She's still so sweet and snuggly, which I wouldn't expect to have suddenly changed, but these days I'm soaking it in more while I still have a lap and only one child to care for.

Then, there's the Bad:

Fears: as what I believe is just a corollary to her growing imagination, she gets scared much more easily. There was the battle of the Fluff, where for about two weeks she was terrified of...lint. The other day I innocently and excitedly said, "look, Anneke, there's a spider on the floor!" and she FREAKED out.

I really don't think these fears are "bad," but it's something to work through and sometimes hard for me to know when to just ride it out and when to push her a bit to get past it. I'm probably over-reacting since I work with kids with anxiety disorders--I need to remember these are most likely just part of her development, and the last thing I need to do is add to the drama by getting worked up over it myself.

and the Ugly:

Hand-foot-mouth disease! enough said. Plus, I caught a cold that bore too close a resemblance to the galloping consumption, and poor Dave came down with a stomach bug. All par for the course, but definitely ugly!

Bad hair day

Hmmm. Maybe she actually does have enough hair to start thinking about getting it cut.