The Weekend Approaches

I have nothing to do with this post.  Hiya!

I have trouble prioritizing my weekend projects.

I almost wrote that sentence as if that were a new development, but it isn't; I've had this problem for forever.  There is always so much I wish I could accomplish but the motivation suddenly goes missing when I have to confront my end-of-week exhaustion and my clingy, destruction-prone precious progeny.

True to form, I have a big list for this weekend and I expect to do very little of it.  I have hopes, but I also have reality.

But here's something: soup.  Soup will happen.  As will friends.  Also, Downton Abbey. 

Hopefully I'll have more to report on than that come Monday, but for the time being, hold me accountable will you?  I know that I've set the bar pretty low but, committing to soup?  I'm very afraid that I have just set myself up for failure.

Guess Who Still Isn't a Fan of Chewing?

Little dude is still a staunch soup and puree man.   Also, he is anti-green.  I don't think there is any good reason for this; he seems to be shunning green food on principal alone.

You know what's fun?  Baby torture.

With birthday cake in Finley's very near future, force-feeding him something cake-like is surely in his best interest.  But healthy and cake-like.  And why not green for good measure?

I was googling around for quinoa muffins when these spinach banana quinoa muffins popped up.  You know what?  They're pretty tasty.  Plenty sweet, too!  But guess who isn't having it?

just gobbling them up

Finley wants you to know that I have a couple dozen spinach banana quinoa muffins free for the taking.  He's such a giver, our guy.

Sweet Ride

Well, Christmas is over.

Finley got one big present from us this year. Bigger than him big. Too big. So I figured the best thing to do was to leave it wrapped in the living room. The other Christmas presents slowly found places to live and, weeks after the actual holiday, Finley's giant gift hulked in the middle of our apartment--red and green and all. So when Finley finally focused his destructive energy on his poor neglected present, I decided it was time to get serious about finding a place to store the thing.

Surprise!  Bike seat (bike not included)!  Merry Christmas, Finley!

Anyway, it turns out that is isn't as huge a storage problem as I figured; the box just made it seem twice as big as it is (me = super genius).  The upside is that I got so worked up about finding a place for it in our apartment that I went ahead and rearranged/cleaned out the closet anyway.  How refreshing!  So for now we have a clean closet and a promise of many biking adventures.  All we need now is a helmet for the little dude...

 

dweeb

...to cover up that hair!  Yeesh.

Also, I need someone to loan me their baby so I can take a few practice rides before I put my precious cargo in harm's way.  Any takers?

Duck Slippers

I never showed you of Finley's Christmas stocking-stuffer slippers because I was too lazy to take a good picture of them. Here's a mediocre picture of them instead (but a lovely picture of the guys, no?):

You can see that I made use of leftover pajama-pant fabric, but you can't see that the heel is made up of a coordinating blue fabric ('cause I'm wild and crazy like that).  Also different is that I used non-skid fabric for the soles as I (rightly) suspected that our little guy would be up on his feet soon. This means that I bothered to line the soles with the pajama flannel (sans interfacing) just to keep things comfy.  They're cut from the same free! pattern! as before, but sized up another quarter-inch (that's a full half-inch up from the original if you're counting).  There is definitely room to grow in these, which is good, because this guy is growing. 

I could make more shoes since his first two pairs are getting a little tight and don't have any non-skid insurance, but I suppose we'll be moving on to hard soles soon.  How did this happen?  One minute he's happily crawling along, oblivious to any benefits of being vertical, and the next his little head is impossibly peeking at me over the top of my mattress.  I was lucky to witness what was essentially his first venture into upright living (the real first happened in his crib in the middle of the night when no one was looking); he had joined me in the bathroom as I got ready for work on Wednesday night and, the siren call of my open makeup drawer being irresistible, he grasped on to it and lifted himself up onto his feet like it was nothing--like he'd been doing it his whole life.  Funny considering the slow, halting start he had with crawling.

Anyway, my hopes of having a late walker are dashed.  He may still be a while off from venturing beyond the safety of the nearest ledge, but he's proven that we need to up our childproofing game significantly.  The extent of the mess that he can make has literally reached a new plane. 

Anyway, back to my original point and just because I happened to take one, here's a picture of all the shoes I made prior to the new slippers (two pairs for friends, two pairs for Finley).  The pair second from the left happens to be the original size intended by the pattern.

And a helpful tip that the internet gave me is that you can add puff paint to the soles to DIY your own non-slip sole.  I suppose I could give it a try, but I'm skeptical of the paint's staying power. Plus I'm just not that motivated to buy puff paint right now.  Imagine. 

So Long, Old Friend

the dollar is for scale, and is approximately how much this thing is worth

We got  rid of our brunt-of-many-jokes television on Monday.  It used to be our main TV and people would scoff when they'd see it.  And then they'd get really whiny when we made them watch things on it.  Life is tough, whiners.

It was a wonderful TV, though, because it gave us an excuse to hang on to our fifty-seven liner feet of VHS tapes.  Also, eye exercise!  It worked perfectly well (except for occasionally refusing to play dvds) and, heartless as we are, we went and replaced it with a fancy flat-screen and blu-ray combo last Christmas.  Since then, it's sat, dejected on our dresser, gathering dust. 

We decided it would have a better life elsewhere and re-homed it via craigslist, and wouldn't you know it, the kind craigslist responder took the VHSs with it, doing us a bigger favor than she could ever know (had we had the foresight to include our DVD copy of Howard the Duck, our media cabinet would almost be respectable).  Because of her, I'm feeling downright ascetic with our one television and slim DVDs.  Thanks craigslist lady!

I Would Have Posted Today

but the internet needs me.  (Clearly not because I'm lazy).

So, you're not getting an incredibly cute picture of Finley today.  Sorry.  Thank SOPA/PIPA. (But not my laziness.  My laziness has nothing to do with this.)

Furniture that I Want

Ventura at Room and Board

Woodrow at Blu Dot 

I've been coveting that table for a long time and that bed isn't even in stores yet but I'm pretty sure I need it. There are a million and one ways that I could justify making a big splurge on either piece of furniture, but the sad fact is that the furniture I own essentially looks just like these new, expensive things.  

But the thing is, if I were to splurge on furniture, I should just choose one big expensive thing to splurge on, right?  Two would be overdoing it.  Obviously.  (Right?) And there's the collateral (pocketbook) damage to consider.  If I get a table, I'll understandably want new chairs after that.  But the bed?  You don't even want to know how much furniture I would have to buy if a new bed showed up in my room. 

Thanks for letting me get that out. 

Other pressing things on my mind:

If one were to have cake for the first time ever, what sort of cake should it be?

Is there a special kind of disease that forces a person to spend at least fifty dollars every time she visits fabric.com?

What other defunct baby furniture can I hang from the ceiling of my closet?

11 Months

Favorite new toy: electrical outlets.  Tooth count: eight.  Favorite thing to use teeth on: metal lamp base.

Little dude is way into destruction.  He also has automatic and unwavering interest in the thing that mom and dad don't want him to be interested in.  He still loves his books, though.  And he mimics things that he hears--words are a bit shaky, but he does a pitch-perfect tea kettle.

A Very Small Something

Coasters inspired by the Purl Bee!

Sunday in Two Pictures

I bribed Andy to go mattress shopping with a promise of Shake Shack.

Insider tip: there are no lines on Sunday at noon.  However, there is also no beer.

Andrew's away on business and I'm wrangling the kiddo on my own. I think I'm going to be able to keep up the blog posts, but, for the record, the full-time job is much more conducive to blogging than the full-time mothering.

A Boy and His Vacuum

Finley loves this thing.  Whenever he hears me fire it up, he laughs and scurries my way. 

sweet vacuum kisses

It's cute, but also worrisome. Certain people in my family are addicted to their vacuums.  Hey, look: evidence.  I think I've dodged that bullet, but I worry for the little dude.

Happy New Year, Chickens

Wouldn't you know it, our neighborhood has a certifiable chicken kerfuffle on its hands.  Aside from it being crazy that a whole building collapsed into a giant pit in our neighborhood (truly, it's a complete mess), chicken kerfuffle!  Thanks for that, New York Times. 

How was everyone's holiday?  We were tempted to turn in early on new year's eve, but we managed to ring in the new year and them some.  We played board games until 2 a.m. y'all.  Glamour!

So, I've been anti-resolution for a few years now (that, or I've set the bar incredibly low for ensured success).  This year, though, I've got one thing that I've been wanting to prioritize and I'm going to see if I can make it happen. I'm being intentionally vague so I won't have to explain myself if the whole thing's a colossal failure, but don't worry, you'll be the first to know if I pull it off!

Here's hoping 2012 brings you many wonderful things--chicken or non.