Easter 2008 (or Dash's First Haircut )

Oh, Spring. We love you and your bunnies and tulips and sunshine so very much. Thank you for being you.

We don't normally celebrate Easter, but this year we were invited to Mooma's house (that's Aunty's mom and Masie, Hayden & Mackenna's grandma). We made Easter baskets for the girls that contained an obscene amount of candy. I just thanked God I didn't have to be in the car with them after eating that much sugar.

Dash's Angels.

Dash had a poopy diaper earlier, which Mason helped to change.

Me: Masie, you can't change Dash's diaper because then you won't want to marry him when you grow up.
Mason: That's ok. I'll still marry him.

First Easter egg hunt (um, Dad? My hair is getting a little out of control, yes?)

FOUND ONE!

There's candy in there?!?!

WTF, yo? Where's the candy?

Hey, Dad? Remember when I mentioned that thing about my hair? I wasn't kidding.

Aunty Melissa cuts hair?! Nice!

Hello, ladies. How you like me now?

Spring! Spring! Spring!

This morning the birds were chirping so loudly, so lustily and with such elan that it was almost too much. What a glorious welcome to Spring!

Speaking of Spring, here are some Spring-related tidbits that I will very tenuously connect because clearly I can't get it together to make a normal blog post like a real blogger, but I don't want to forget so, well:

I made some St. Paddy's cupcakes with cute little flags to welcome our new neighbors. They weren't home when we dropped them off, so I left them with a note. There's been no acknowledgment at all from their side of the street, so maybe they didn't like them (or, um, me). We, however, ate the second dozen I made for us in, like, 20 minutes. So screw them, at least we had an excuse to eat yummy green cupcakes.

Dash pulled the picks out of each and every one of our batch, licked the frosting off, then reinserted them. They all looked about like this when he was done. We ate them anyway.

**

So, you know, we're not really great Jews. We don't belong to a Temple. We don't really celebrate any holidays except Hanukkah and Passover, and really, all we do for those two are eat delicious brisket and recite prayers that we only sort-of understand. But still, we're at the very least ethnically Jewish and we try to acknowledge it as much as we can.

Each year we're invited for Seder, or Passover dinner, at the home of some of Josh's relatives. They have a beautiful home and their Passover is always beyond lovely. It's also a great excuse for us to spend time with our close and extended families and show off the kid. I usually bring wine or flowers to the hostess, but a few weeks ago, while shopping for a colander, I spotted some Passover-themed cookie cutters I couldn't resist. I had big plans to make a few dozen perfectly-decorated cookies to bring to dinner this year.

The Jews among you have already spotted the flaw in my logic, yes? For the goyim among you: the main thing about Passover is NO GRAIN. And cookies? They're made from FLOUR. Which is, you know, GRAIN. Awesome. So, ok, I'm definitely not that smart for buying them. But who in the hell decided to produce them in the first place? Maybe I'll bring them to Easter dinner with Aunty's family. Gotta represent. Even if my grasp on what I'm representing is weak at best.

**

And finally: Look I painted these for Dash for Christmas (see? bad Jews) and only just got around to photographing them yesterday. I can't really paint, and Dash isn't really interested in them, but I'm proud enough that I came up with a plan and executed it. Sometimes it's the small victories we have to count.

There's a teensy leetle white mouse after the penguin but someone absconded with it (seeing as how it's an irresistible choking hazard and all).

Important to Know

I haven't had any real time to write entire blog posts about our recent doings, but I want to make notes so that I don't forget how awesome these last few days have been.

**

We were at Target on Sunday (honestly, it would be faster to note when we're not at Target) and Dash was walking along in front of our cart (he will not ride in the cart unless there has been major discussion in advance--which there wasn't this time--"Dashy, when we go to the store you're going to have to ride in the cart, ok?" "No Dashy ride!" "Unless you ride we can't go to the store and you'll have to stay home. Would you rather ride or stay home?" "Dashy ride!" Repeat 10,000 times.) pointing out all of the wonder and glory when we approached the bra section. Dash knew instantly what they were and made sure to educate us all: [pointing to a brown bra] "Brown boobies." [pointing to a pink bra] "Pink boobies." And so on and so forth. This was obviously the funniest thing we'd ever seen, but also: when did he learn his colors? Literally two days ago everything, and I mean everything, was blooooooooooooo. Green? Blooooo. Red? Blooooooo. But bra colors he gets. Ok, father's son I guess.

**

Yesterday was the first day of Daylight Saving Time and we took advantage of the extra daylight to have our first family bbq of 2008. Filet Mignon ($10 for TWO at Trader Joes, yo) sweet corn on the cob, and garlic-rubbed ciabatta went on the grill to make the most delicious dinner we've had in eons. And Dash ate 1/3 of my steak! It's the first red meat I've gotten him to eat. Glad to know he has good taste.

**

Wouldn't it be nice to have someone cut up fresh, organically-grown strawberries for you for breakfast on a Tuesday? Dash doesn't know how lucky he is.

**

I bought this bamboo junk drawer organizer because I'd become obsessed with the idea of assembling a bunch of beautiful natural objects and having Dash lovingly sort them into different cubbies. I thought he could learn about colors and textures and nature all at once. Do I even need to say how this went over? Not only does he not care about this assemblage one iota, it's like it doesn't even exist. He doesn't even see it except when he needs me to move it so he'll have more room for Legos. But isn't it lovely? Maybe it'll grow on him.

**

I bought Dash this little table and chairs set from Ikea for, like, $20.


It's sturdy and the perfect size, and when Dash got his play kitchen it served perfectly to house his little oven and coffeemaker. Only problem was that after we put it in our kitchen, he'd want to eat there and eventually the unfinished wood became grubby and covered in grease stains that no amount of scrubbing would get off. So I painted it.


And then I Mod Podged these little apple and tomato designs I cut out of gingham scrapbook paper. I love them very much.

**

And finally, we bought Free to Be ... You and Me and it is the single greatest cd ever created including anything by Radiohead and Tom Waits that's how serious I am. It is the most hopeful, loving endeavor for children I can imagine and just reading the liner notes makes me weepy. There is nothing cynical. There are no action figure tie-ins. It's just about teaching children to respect themselves and each other. Also, Mel Brooks is a baby in one skit that begins, "Hi. I'm a baby." And in another Carol Channing teaches us that nobody smiles while doing housework and that's how we know that commercials aren't real life. And, if Rosie Grier says It's Alright to Cry, then probably it's alright to cry.

**

PS:
Toddler's Delight

Happy

Happy birthday to:

Jessica Biel

Tone Lōc

Ira Glass

and

We love you, Daddy.

Let's Go!

Dash starts to get stir crazy at around 11am on the weekends. He'll have had enough of Cailliou (no small feat, this) and he'll start following me and Josh around the house shouting, "let's go!" He has no idea where he wants to go, but he needs to get there right quick.

This weekend it was raining and I was still not recovered from the cold-flu from hell (9 days and counting, thanks), but the baby started let's go-ing so we let's went. Josh scrounged up an umbrella and we layered Dash in a thermal, then sweater, then jacket and we set out for a walk in the rain. It was kinda cold and a little windy but still, so much fun.

When we returned home Josh lit a fire and Dash watched it, hypnotized, until he fell asleep in my arms. Not a bad way to spend a cold winter morning.

Be Mine

I was digging around Flickr for a photo of my Valentines to mark the day, and I happened upon one I guess I never noticed before:


Obviously, if I had been paying attention, this horror would never have made it off of the camera in the first place. But thank God I live two-thirds of my life in a distracted haze and just loaded this up with the rest. This is the EXACT face Josh makes when he's confused or thinking hard or just making fun. I mean, of course, the resemblance between them is undeniable, but this is truly remarkable.

The other remarkable thing is that, even when I'm mad at him (like I was for most of today) or incredibly stressed (like I have been for the past couple of weeks) or so frustrated that all I want to do is stand in the shower and scream (see previous) I never cease to be abso-fucking-lutely delighted that I helped make another face just like Josh's

I guess that's how you know you chose right. Even when all you want to do is stomp and yell and growl, you're thrilled at the sight of another that looks just exactly like they do.

Hearts

Josh and I have never been big on Valentines Day. Our tradition is to order a pizza and watch a movie on that day. We acknowledge it, but without any of the forced romance of red roses and boxed chocolate (although, mmmm, boxed chocolate). Josh is my best friend, partner and love of my life every single day of the year and I don't need Hallmark to tell me when to make that known.

But, like everything else, having Dash has made the holiday more fun for me to embrace. I like paper crafts and small, easy projects, and making valentines fits the bill perfectly.


These are the goody bags for family and Dash's classmates. The baggies are filled with pink and red Hershey's Kisses and a few Sweet Hearts. For the tags, I printed old vintage valentines onto sticker paper, cut them out and stuck them onto hang tags. Dash signed some.

Dash's teachers and staff at his school will get slightly more elaborate packages. The little paper baskets & tissue paper are from Target. These will have the Kisses and Hearts, along with home-baked cookies cut into Xs and Os.

Dash had a little, live Christmas tree in his room over the holidays that I hadn't the faintest idea what to do with after January 1. The tag that came with it suggested I plant it in the yard after the holidays, but I have no idea what size this thing could grow to or even if it could survive in So Cal. So I stuck it in the kitchen window and am hoping for the best. I've decided it will be my celebration tree. I'll decorate it for whatever holiday or season approaches. The little Valentine characters are stuck onto the silver balls left over from Christmas with double-sided tape. I printed the images from Country Living Magazine (last page).

I saw these doily hearts at the market and couldn't resist them. I stuck a piece of double-sided tape onto the backs and let Dash loose with them. His efforts all landed about three feet from the floor, so I helped a little with placement.