Child's Eye View

My little artist amazes me. At 3, her understanding of beauty leaves me awe struck. Besides her drawings, which will be a post of their own, she is developing quite an eye for photography. Here's a sample of her work, minus the paparazzi shots she took of Lydia nursing.

"I like my tights, so I took a picture."

"This is from my car seat."

Self portrait.

"My cracker."

"My cracker's crumbs."

"Daddy." (Please excuse the messy basement. Oh, and sorry Josh ;)

Lydia

"Daddy's arms holding Lydia."

And... a curious little monkey.

The Business of a Preschooler

About a year ago, during a dinner of Artichokes and pasta, Annika announced that we were eating at "Chanos Grand Opening," her new restaurant. She's stuck with Chanos, and tells us that she owns another restaurant, Kingys, in the neighboring town of Warrenton. From what I gather, the Astoria location is more bistro, while Warrenton's is more diner.

On Josh's iphone, she discovered a restaurant app. It, of course, is Chanos online. She earns virtual money and makes wise business purchases. She regularly check on her game, making sure customers are happy, and buys necessities for a growing business. Recently, she spent about one hundred thousand dollars on a decorative lion, because "People like dragon dancers, but if you can't have a dragon, then a lion is OK."

Occasionally, Annika comes up with her own recipes, and we make them. The latest? A hotdog pancake surprise. The hotdogs are actually Linketts, a vegetarian soy product. She loves them. Anyway, we were having pancakes and berries for dinner, and what could be better than that? I'll tell you; it's a hotdog inside your pancake. What does one eat on top of this creations? Well, peanut butter and honey, of course.

 

Chanos chef enjoying the fruits of her labor, and a happy customer.

The Long Road Home & an Easter Photo Frenzy

For Easter, we loaded up the girls and headed to my Dad's new house in Port Orchard, Washington. You know when parents talk about how much gear it takes to sustain a couple of kids for a weekend, the whole "everything but the kitchen sink" cliche? Well, I'm hear to say that it's true.

It takes a LOT of stuff for a weekend now that we have two little ones. Annika, upon seeing her empty suitcase, announced that she is big enough to pack for herself. I suggested that she select a few books to take. She did, along with her new princess shoes, tutus, dress up clothes, crowns, coloring supplies, ballet slippers, a dolly, and her favorite pink blanket & pillow. Needless to say, her suitcase was full.

I squeezed her clothes into my suitcase, along with Lydia's gear; diapers, wipes, pajamas, Easter dress, back up Easter dress in case she spits up or poops on the original, back up clothes... you get the picture. By the time I attempt packing for myself, I realize that it's time to shop for a new suitcase; my cute O'Neill rolling bag from my surf shop days has been taken over. (I suppose this is as literal as metaphorical.)

Scrambling to find clothes that move beyond yoga pants & hoodies, I throw a few shirts and jeans into Josh's duffel bag, and search for church clothes suitable for breastfeeding. Tricky. Running through a checklist, making sure I have all the baby necessities, I realize that every last binky in the house needs to be sterilized.

Several hours past our targeted departure time, we are on the road, Lydia sleeping in her infant seat and Annika playing fruit ninja on Josh's iphone. With no pit stops, we cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and are now only 20 minutes from our destination. Lydia begins to scream. Unwilling to pull over so close to the end of the journey, I climb to the backseat of our Passat wagon, squeeze between the car seats, buckle my self in, and scoot, lean, and struggle my way close enough to Lydia to breastfeed. It worked!

The next day was filled with egg decorating and exploring.

Lydia decided that puffs are an essential part of every meal.

Easter morning was filled with excitement; the bunny left gifts & candy, and eggs all over the yard and garden. Annika was in her element; wearing her new dress, cameras flashing in her direction all day.

I like how this one looks like Sydney & Annika have morphed into a labraAnnikadoodle.

Dancing Easter Princess.

I worked all morning on those curls. Just kidding, she's a lucky girl.

"Mommy, do you like coyotes?" "Sure I do." "Why?" "Because they're wild & wiley." "But Mommy, do you like coyote poop?" "No sweetie." "Why?" "Well, because it's poop. Try not to step in it, OK?"

After a fun filled and magical day, it was time to hit the pavement. Gear loaded, pulling out of the driveway as the sun set, waving good bye, we hear Lydia grunting in her infant seat... A quick change and we're back on our way. It was smooth sailing until about 95 miles from Astoria. Despite feeding stops, Lydia screamed as if she were being tortured in the backseat.

A friend recently remarked that parenting is the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows. Yes, that was our day. With a baby screaming as I'm trying to focus on the road (where I did see two coyote running across the highway) wishing that the miles between wherever we were and home would vanish, I began to wonder if home was all it was cracked up to be. Could we just start over, Swiss Family Robinson style out here in the woods? After all, we have enough stuff with us.

Eventually, we did make it home. Lydia ceased her rage as we approached the lights of Astoria, no joke. Happy to be home, we carried sweet sleeping Annika into bed. Lydia, ecstatic to be out of her car seat went wild with excitement. She squealed, giggled, wiggled and rallied hard until two in the morning, playing peek a boo and waving to portraits of her sister. Highs and lows...

What's Worse than Stretchy Pants in Public?

Nights at our house right now are long... really long. Lydia, 7 months, is teething and generally despises sleep. She screams off and on from about 11-6, and then settles in for a good solid hour and a half snooze. Josh and I are deliriously sleepy.

This morning, Lydia decided to skip her early morning sleepy time and woke the family up extra early. Still too tired to fully open my eyes, I set Annika up with Curious George 2 and did my best to snuggle Lydia while she ripped my hair out. Unpleasant as slobbery little fingers plucking hair from my tender scalp may be, keeping my eyes closed for another fifteen minutes made it worth while.

Being a Wednesday morning, it was breakfast, showers, and off to swimming lessons. I'm realizing that trying to get the girls ready and out the door in a reasonable amount of time is like those dreams, you know the ones, where you're trying to run from something but you are completely paralyzed. The last thing I have time for, or even care about, is making myself presentable. I usually end up wearing yoga pants and a hoodie.

Up earlier than usual today, I took the time to wear real person clothes. During breakfast, Lydia spit mashed banana all over me, so it was back to stretchy pants. You know what's even worse that wearing stretchy pants out in public? Peed on stretchy pants. I know. I wore them today.

After bathing Lydia, I was in her room picking out clothes for her to wear. Standing there with my clean baby still wrapped in her towel, looking through her armoire, she let out a steady stream of baby pee, all over my shirt & pants, and left a puddle of what I'm certain was two and a half quarts of water on her floor. Dropping her towel to soak up the lake, I set her in the tub again making sure she was once again bathed and sweet smelling.

Forgetting that I was wet, I finished dressing the girls, and out the door we went. Arriving at the pool, it hit me; I was soaked in baby urine. To complete my outfit, I had forgotten to put on my intended shoes. Wading through puddles on the way into the pool, my halfway painted toes were freezing, sliding around in flip flops. Lucky for me though, Josh left his track gear in the car, so I had a large men's raincoat to shield me from an Oregon Coast downpour.

Sitting, watching Annika swim & nursing Lydia, wearing my ridiculous outfit, I found it perplexing that I wasn't embarrassed - Weird. The kids were cute, clean, teeth brushed, and smiling. I guess this is my new priority...

Good night all, I wish you blissful slumber.
Deanna

P.S.
Oh, and Lydia had a well baby check today which included 3 shots. She was a champ. To avoid the trauma of watching her little sister being tortured, Annika went to track practice with Daddy & loved every rainy minute.

Block Printing for Beginners, a Tutorial

I've been promising a block printing "how to" so here it is! I chose a super simple sketch, the anchor I'll be printing on dresses I'm sewing for upcoming markets. Anyone can block print, I promise!

You'll need a block. I work with linoleum; strong enough to take the beating of constant printing and scrubbing since the fabric paint I use is quick setting. I'm fortunate to have an art store here in our little town of Astoria with a good supply of block printing materials. You can shop there too! Dots & Doodles.

After choosing block size, you can either sketch straight onto the lino, or on paper. If you choose to draw on paper (this is the easiest way to transfer letters, rather than writing backwards) use a fairly soft sketching pencil. Place your drawing over the block face down, and rub the paper with a wooden spoon. This should transfer your drawing, and you're ready to carve.

With the exception of the texture around my pictures, I use just what you'll find in this starter kit by Speedball. Before you begin carving, take a second to think about positive & negative spaces. You can always just carve along your lines, keeping it simple. I'll be carving texture around the anchor, cutting the lino out around my sketch.

With my carving tools, I keep a tube of superglue. After a few careless accidents, I've learned a little trick: DIY Dermabond.

Make sure the cut is clean, squirt superglue onto a Q-tip, rub over the wound, and let air dry. Be careful while carving! Always cut away from your body & appendages.

Since I also print on soft cotton onesies and shirts, my carving is deeper than needed for printing on paper.

 

 When you feel like you're done carving, it's time to print!

You'll need a flat surface for rolling your ink. I use a glass cake plate. Just squeeze a little ink on your smooth surface, roll the ink around with your brayer, then roll the ink onto your block.

Place the block onto your paper, or paper onto your block, and rub the paper with a wooden spoon.

Peel the paper off, and Voila, your beautiful creation! You are now a block printer!