Complete

So whaddya think? The "before" pictures are in this post. Other than a few minor touches like the "8" being hung back on the house upsidedown, and one rear porch light hanging sideways, it is all finished.

Now on to other problems; my digital camera shit the bed. Any suggestions on a new model that I should look at? Something inexpensive because I really just use it for snapshots. I don't like things with a ton of features that I have to learn but will never use, but it needs to take good pictures. Also, for some reason I can't view this blog. I get an IE error message telling me "operation aborted" (!) and it closes the page. Blogger bug? IE bug? God knows. I'm a technotard and just can't deal...

This Weekend

Jamie took Hazel and I out of town for my birthday this past weekend. We stayed at the Blueberry Hill Inn in Goshen, Vermont, population 227. It was beautiful and such a nice relaxing escape. Te breakfasts and dinners at the Inn were spectacular, the company was delightful (for the most part) and the setting was gorgeous. Hazel is an absolute dream to travel with. We had been nervous about it, especially since dinner was served family style to all the Inn's guests at the same time, right at Hazel's bedtime. So it could have gone either way. Soon Hazel was the star of the show, and everyone went on and on about her and what a "good" (meaning compliant) baby she is. And only one woman gave me unsolicited parenting advice! The whole weekend!

This is the best picture that I could get of the amethyst ring (Hazel's birthstone) that Jamie and Hazel got for me. I wear it on my wedding finger to keep my family with me.

Moose! The first of FOUR that Hazel saw this weekend.

Outside of an antique store in Brandon, VT. Little baby in big chair.

Hazel chillin' out by the waterfall.

Bringing her bottle of Red Bicyclette to dinner at the Inn.

Hanging out under the apple tree behind our room after a day in the car.

The pond behind out room. We woke up to this every morning and fell asleep to the frogs every night. The little building behind the pond is the wood-fired sauna.

This poor lonely dog spotted us driving up the road and came charging towards our car. He showed up at the Inn looking desperately for someone to play with. He loved kiddos and kept charging at them every time one came around the corner. There were about four kids swimming in the pond before dinner and this poor dog just paced the ponds edge waiting for them to come out. He was a cuddly fellow, and Hazel is fond of dogs, so we made a temporary family.

Keeping an eye out for kids in the mood to play Chase.

Vision in Prunes

Feeding food is silly and adorable and all, but it's also getting old fast. Hazel is such a messy eater that it is taking our entire morning to get this thing done. By the time we start doing two meals instead of one, I won't be able to leave the house until she is able to order her own Chinese food. Hazel requires a bath after every meal because she so loves to rub everything through her hair. Believe it or not, these pictures were taken after only a few bites of prunes. At least I have learned to feed her naked now for an easier clean-up. I'm very tempted to just move the booster seat outside and turn the hose on her when she is finished eating. In the interest of efficiency, of course.

So far, Hazel has had avocado (can't get enough), banana (eh...), sweet potato (no thanks), peas (blech), brown rice (tolerable), prunes (alright) and yogurt (delish).

Anson's First Lesson in Love

So on my birthday last week, a couple of mamas came by bearing cupcakes for a little playdate between tornado warnings. Poor little Anson was plowed and left in the dust by Hazel. He was resigned to catching a ride on her butt while she tried to kick free. I wish I had it on video, because Anson just sort of allowed it all to happen and it was so sad, but of course we just sat and laughed. Of course the second we turned our backs, Hector swooped in and swallowed my birthday cupcake in one gulp. By the time we discovered it, he just looked up and spit out the candle. Thanks, Hector for totally ruining my birthday.

Mama Tina and Lola. Clearly made for one another. Tina will be greatly missed when she begins her OBGYN residency at BMC and will be working crazy 80 weeks for the next four years. Eek. The mamas of Boston will be lucky to have her catch their little ones, though. Rumor has it that she'll even breastfeed your baby for you! *wink*

Hazel carelessly kicking Anson out of her path of spit-up destruction.

"Wonky eye? What wonky eye?"

Look at his limp little arm...
...and dazed stare.
Oh Anson, don't let her treat you this way.

Baby Haikus

prunes can be sticky
so can my hungry baby
keep them in your mouth

a lot of spit up
the dogs like to fight for it
im going to barf

splash splash in the bath
i will scrub the neck folds clean
make her butt a rose

A Rainy Day

So, I decided to upload a bunch of random pictures of Hazel Porkpie. Not much going on today with the horrible downpours and tornado warnings. We are pretty much stuck inside, and Jamie is working from home today which means he has a big DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging off of him. A couple ladies from the momtourage are coming up for a beer and birthday cupcake visit later on. The Thursday night concert at Castle Hill is cancelled because of the weather, and we just don't have a back up plan tonight. This weekend should prove to be fun and interesting, but I'll write about that later. I'll be taking a little blogging break until mid-week. Anyhoo, here's the good stuff:

This is the first year we have had any hydrangeas, and they look so beautiful! Hector is trying like hell to kill the plant in the back of the house by rushing out to pee on it every chance he gets, but the plant so far has stood up to that sort of treatment quite well.

Hazel, watching CNN.

So we took Hazel to the zoo for the first time last weekend and it was sort of a disaster, but you wouldn't know it from these cool pictures. It was about as hot as the surface of the sun, and the Stone Zoo is a dump. It was so depressing and smelled terribly. The animals were pacing with anxiety and it was filthy. I do not recommend going. All three of us were in tears when we left. We did get a cool picture with Hazel noticing the new black bears in what is a fairly nice new habitat. The rest of the zoo has not had any work done in forty years or so and all the other habitats are behind rusty chain-link fencing with concrete floors or drowning in weeds.

For those that don't know, we are getting our house painted this summer. We have never liked the color (non-historical neon yellow) and when the paint in the back started to peel off in sheets, we knew it was a good time. So, this is the "before" picture. This is the front of my house (which sits sideways) as taken from my driveway. The street is to the left, perpendicular to the front of the house. Yes, I am aware that we need to prune. You can barely see the stone path to the front door. This winter was just a little crazy for us.

This is now what our house looks like. I woke up on Tuesday to a ladder being thunked against my bedroom window at 8am. Within 15 minutes, the whole house was crawling with about twenty guys sanding, scraping, and power washing. They left as quickly as they came, and I think they are going to be back to paint next week. I'll let the color I picked be a surprise.

This is the side of the barn that faces the house. It's a mess.

This is Hazel playing with her friend Anson! We went to Crunchy Granola Baby to chill last week with some of the momtourage. Anson is Emily's son. She emailed this picture to me and it was called "Jailbait and Cougar". Guess who the cougar is? That's right.

She will sleep anywhere.

More eating pictures. So far Hazel is not interested in banana or sweet potato. All she wants is avocado. She can't get in in her fast enough. She tries to scoot herself across the floor to get to me if I'm holding a dish of avo. I could hide flaming razor blades in her avo and she would gobble it down and lick her fingers. She cracks me up leaning in to get to the spoon faster and grabbing my hand to pull it closer.

My Birthday Astrology Reading

I don't know that it could be any more accurate.

High-spirited, enthusiastic, and exuberant, you love adventure, change, exploring new territory, and are not happy confined to the same safe, familiar, secure little world all the time. You have a strong restlessness and yearning for something greater than anything you've yet experienced, and you often live in your dreams and visions for the future. You tend to believe that the grass is greener somewhere else and you like to keep moving, either literally or figuratively. Idealistic and optimistic, you always expect something better ahead. You love to have a goal, something to aim for, but once you achieve it you are on to something else. You are ever on the lookout for new opportunities and you are a gambler, willing to take risks and to break new ground. The possibility of discovering something new is what makes life interesting for you. You have great faith in life and bounce back quickly from disappointment and failure.


Proud and intensely individual, you really want to stand out,to be the very best you can be, and to be recognized andappreciated for your unique contributions. Doing something welland being respected for it is extremely important to you, and youcannot tolerate being in the background, taking orders fromothers, or being "just one of the team". You must put yourpersonal stamp on whatever you do, and direct your own course inlife. You need to have a place where you can shine, expressyourself creatively, and be the one in charge.

You are very strong-willed and proud, but intensely private and not easy to know well. Behind your quiet exterior lies a great deal of emotional depth, sensitivity, complexity, and also fierce determination. When you want something you go after it rather quietly but insistently and wholeheartedly - and you usually get it.

You are a freedom-loving, strong-willed, and independent-minded individual, and you insist upon living your own life as you see fit, even if that means ignoring convention and tradition. In personal relationships you cannot be owned or possessed, and while you are willing to share yourself with another, you do not always adjust easily to the emotional give and take of a close relationship. Though intellectually open, you can be enormously stubborn, opinionated, and inflexible on a one-to-one level. You have strong convictions and feelings about fairness and equality, and you try to live by your ideals, but your ideals about how people SHOULD treat one another don't always take into account human weaknesses, differences, and needs. You probably dislike sentimentality and traditional gender roles and "games".

Happy Birthday!

Welcome to the world Lorna Ariel King!

In sublime synchronicity, this delicious little life came into existence on the birthday of her Grandmother Lorna Kirkpatrick, who passed away two weeks ago. It's proof that Lorna is sending messages of crazy love to her daughters and grandchildren! I will post pictures of the beautiful little being as soon as I can. What an amazing birthday present for both Lornas and the Kirkpatrick girls, and how delightful that Brian will be the father of a daughter who is so meant to be that the stars shift for her. There are smiles raining down today.

Hazel can't wait to meet her new cousin, and get on with growing up together in the sand!

Hazel getting her cuddle on with Auntie Jen, and Jamie deciding that he wants another baby sooner rather than later. He is practically ovulating.

Photoshoot

So, since Hazel has been born, I think I have maybe one picture of the two of us together in which I do not look like a big pile of unwashed crap. Seriously folks, when you see Hazel and I looking cute together, please take a picture. And then give it to me. Everyone is all, "Oh, take a picture with me and Hazel!" or, as is most often the case, I am the one in charge of the camera taking everyone elses pictures for them and no one thinks that I might like to have a nice picture with my daughter. One in which I have applied a bit of makeup, am wearing real clothes, not sitting on the couch watching VH1. And if it could be at a flattering angle, that might be nice, too. If it could also not be a corny look-at-the-camera-and-say-"cheese" snapshot, that would be good. Honest to god, people...I am her mother after all.

So after expressing my extreme displeasure to Jamie, I put on some lipgloss, we went for a walk in Rockport and I gave him control of the camera. After a brief instruction in how not to emphasize double chins and to not call attention to the camera, he took these really pretty pictures of my daughter and I. Finally. Isn't she beautiful?

She was so busy staring at her dad and refused to look at the kind stranger taking the picture. He didn't feel like standing there all night.

Our corner.


I love it when she smiles with her whole body like this. Her face can't contain all the happiness.

I love that she is about to dive through the window so that she can put that curious thing in her mouth.