Art work

Thought I'd share some artwork from Miss S. Of course I'm biased because she's mine, but I think she produces some pretty amazing picture for being all of three and a half.

First one - Sofie and Mommy (we're cats, of course, because this is Sofie-world) with Phoenix (a real cat, who is different from a human cat in that "he doesn't have arms!").

Mommy pushes Sofie in the stroller. Note the flowers, snails, some kind of large bird of prey near my head, and I think some baby birds in the bottom corner:

 

And a family portrait. Brett is the one with the beard in the center, then me to the left of him, then Sofie. Are we wearing Devo hats? I don't know. Behind in the background is our house and a swingset. Birds are flying or threatening us, not sure, and two baby birds look on from a nest in the bottom right corner.

 

Not bad, right? She does dozens of these kinds of pictures a day. This kid loves to draw, for sure.

Toddlers do not like phone conversations

Things Sofie asked me today while I was talking on the phone -- which I almost never do -- in an escalating attempt to drag my attention back to her:

• "Mama, what's on my arm?"
• "Why does hair come out of my brain?"
• "WHY DID THE CAT DIE????"

(Note: the cat died over two years ago. And no, hair does not grow out of her brain.)

Swimming lessons

I took Sofie to her first swimming lesson ever yesterday, at the wonderful Mounger Pool in Magnolia. Sofie has a love-hate relationship with water. Last summer, she hated it and wouldn't even get her toes wet. The summer before, she spent entire days in her wading pool. This year? She seems to be slightly more pro-swimming. I feel hopeful.

The lessons were in a small heated pool, with lots of swim noodles and a little bitty slide. The task for the day was to kick and blow bubbles, while clinging to your mommy. Sofie did great at the clinging part, holding on to me with a sheer deathgrip, both arms and legs wrapped around me tightly enough to cut off the circulation, and spent most of the half hour politely saying "NO THANK YOU!" whenever I asked if she'd like to kick. No way, man, that means unwrapping my legs from around your torso!

At one point I tried to flip her around so that she could lean her back against me and kick out in front of me, thinking that might be a little more comfortable.

"NO!" she sobbed. "I WANT TO SEE YOUR BEEE-YOOTIFUL FACE!"

Awwwwww. :) How could I not turn her back around when she said something like that?

She did eventually lay on her belly and kick a little, and even blow a couple bubbles, and I'm very proud of her. For her very first lesson, the fact that she did anything is a big deal.

Committee Sighting

It's been a while since I've reported on The Committee -- here's their last sighting, almost a year ago. And here and here and here and... well you can click on the label at the end of any of these to see more.

They're still present, but they play a lesser role now that Sofie is so busy with her one hundred baby cats. So tonight I was especially glad to find them all together, apparently carrying out an important mission atop of Sofie's potty chair.

And what they were up to, when I investigated, was holding the lid down so the cat who'd been placed inside the potty couldn't get out. You can see his thin blue tail peeking out of the front.

The cat in question, a lovely handmade critter you can see here:

has been named Smell by my daughter. Smell sleeps in the potty. Of course.

Smell's picture taken by UppityWomanDesigns, on etsy, the maker of this fine animal who deserves a much, much better name.

New Sewing Adventures

I sew a lot, as you may know. But being primarily a quilter, and having learned everything I know about sewing from the quilting world, I pretty much sew straight lines. Yes, I can do some fancy things with just straight lines, as my shop my indicate. But essentially I rotary cut, piece things as if they were quilt blocks, and use a few other fancy quilt-making techniques (applique being a favorite) where I want to gussy things up.

Sewing garments? That's a whole other world I know nothing about.

So my friend Kate and I have both been wanting to try some simple kids' clothing patterns, and today I tried out my first one. And lo and behold, it wasn't that complicated! I made, in about two hours, this skirt, pictured (badly, taken from my cell phone) on Miss Sofie:

And it was really fun! I'm about to go try another pattern. This might get addictive.

Wordless Wednesday - Investigating the Troll

Looking at the VW in the hand of the Fremont troll

Maddie photoshoot

Maddie showed up as I was finishing some etsy pics today, so I decided to take a few pictures of her. She posed obligingly. Such a sweet girl.

Tomato madness, sort of

Has there ever been a May as gorgeous as this? Probably my fellow Seattle-ites are scratching their heads, because I know there have been some cloudy days, but overall so far it's just seemed phenomenally sunny and beautiful to me.

Again, this could be the contrast to last year. If it was gorgeous then, I'm not sure I noticed. But I'm pretty sure, from my little gardening book in which I make a few notes on the weather each spring and when things start growing, that the last two years were colder and wetter than this.

I've been watching the papers to see when the nighttime temperature will routinely top 50 degrees, since that tends to be important for planting, and the forecast for every night from tomorrow on was to beat that. Yay soil temperature!

So to celebrate I put out the last of the tomatoes just now. Did I mention previously I'm only growing ten this year? It seems like so few that I have to keep stopping myself from running out to get more. And honestly I may slip and get one or two more in the end. But it's also nice, now that I'm not overstressing the yard trying to get 20 tomatoes planted, to find I have some room!

There are whole pots left that have nothing in them yet. This is a novel experience for me. I was able to save two big half-barrels for zucchini, which I haven't had room for in years but love to grow, and I haven't even touched my three big Gardener's Supply tomato success pots. They're awesome, but I think I'm going to save them for eggplants and beans and basil this year. Something smaller.

All of this also means less gigantic tomato cages on my porch. It's a little prettier. There's room to sit.

Yes, I think this scaled back gardening is going to be a good thing.

And just for the record, here are the varieties I'm growing this year. Only one is new to me - the other nine are old favorites. They are:

• Red Brandywine - our all time favorite, put in the sunniest and hottest spot in the yard, and pray for a favorable year. 
• Yellow Brandywine - ditto. I will always, ALWAYS grow these two.
• Green Zebra - didn't do well last year, but we've had great years with it in the past.
• Matt's Wild Cherry
• Sweet Million Cherry
• Sungold Cherry
• Chocolate Cherry
• Jaune Flamme - smallish orange tomatoes I really love. I think this is the fourth year for these.
• Pineapple - our newcomer! This is a fullsize heirloom variety I read about a few years ago and have been dying to try. So thrilled to find it at Swansons this year!
• Dona - red, fullsize, not a huge plant. Tried it a few years ago and am trying it again. 

Of course, now that I'm reading this I can't help but note that I have no black/purple varieties and really only a couple (two? three?) full size that might be big producers. The brandywines are few and far between (but worth it!) and the cherries are awesome but aren't the same as good slicing tomatoes. Should I go get one of the big early tomatoes, like Sasha's Altai? And a Purple Cherokee?

Argggggggggggggggggggggggg. Stop me before I fill up the yard again.

Roses

I'd never seen a rose open up quite like this before - the outer ring of petals all the way open, the inner petals all still tightly furled in a bud. Beautiful, isn't it?

These were part of the gorgeous Mother's Day bouquet Brett sent me from the east coast. Red, yellow, peach, and hot pink roses.

Little Phoenix

Earlier I mentioned how Sofie has a full time job playing mommy to her favorite toy, Little Soft Phoenix.

Yes, he's the same one who disappeared in the Denver airport. We told Sofie he was trying to find an envelope to mail himself back home to her, when really we were waiting for a new version to arrive from a toystore online. Little Phoenix was on backorder. After three weeks or so, he finally showed up and Sofie was thrilled beyond belief to see him again.

Today, after much begging and pleading and days and days of campaigning, we went to the toy store to see if we could find him a crib. Sofie genuinely thought we were going to go to Babys R Us and buy him a great big, kid-sized crib like the one she used to have, and that we would put it upstairs in Mom and Dad's room since it wouldn't fit in her room.

Uh, no. But we found this cute little doll-sized playpen that does the trick nicely, and brought it home.

Here he is, enjoying his new domain. He's the small black cat under the blanket, with his head on the Nemo pillow. The orange cat (formerly of the committee) is HIS favorite toy.

Nice life these animals lead, isn't it?

My childhood in a box

Last night at dinner, my Dad and I were looking at Sofie's drawings and marvelling at how good she is, as always. Then I remembered that there were a few preschool pictures in the big box of stuff my mom saved from my childhood, so I ran upstairs to dig it out and see if we could find anything to compare.

There wasn't much in there from earlier than kindergarten, but I think this might be a preschool picture:

Based on that I'd definitely say Sofie is a better artist than me. I think I was four when I drew this, and she's already doing much more detailed stuff.

Then we found a lot of other funny stuff. Like this book of ghost stories I put together in something like fourth grade:

What I find funny about this is how seriously I took it. Note that I awarded myself a Newberry Book Award in the lower right corner.

I also included book review blurbs on the back cover and an "About the Author" blurb inside the back cover, with a space for my picture! Ha. Funny stuff:

And inside there were even some referrals to books written by my friend Holly -- along the line of "if you loved this book you'll also like xyz by Holly!" And, of course, illustrations by yours truly.

Then there's this fine piece, entitled "The Numscult King." I believe that's supposed to be numbskull.

Why does he have a little bag of money? Is he trying to hire new wise men?

And apparently I had something for pigs, because here's a picture I drew of the Justice League in pork form:

Subtitle, which I cut off in the scan - "Protecting All Those Who Oink." Batpig, supersow, aquapig, wonderpigwoman, and an unidentified fifth hero. I don't know why a viking is fighting an indian over on the left. Or why his dragon shield seems to be in love with him.

I lovelovelove how my pig wonder woman has a little caption saying "Great Hera!" Hee.

A few thoughts on Mother's Day

Three and a half is a fun age - partly because it's the age when random and really interesting questions start to become your full-time companions. It's a fascinating peek into what's going on in their little heads. Sofie asks me things all the time, just out of the blue, that makes it clear how much time she's spending really trying to understand the world.

"Where do the stars go during the day?"
"Are they (the stars) far away?"
"Why do balloons pop?"
"What color is air?"
"Why does blood come out when you cut yourself?"

I especially like how, at bedtime, I'll be sitting with her as she gives all appearances of drifting off -- post-song, post-story, eyes closed, clutching her toys to her chest. Just as I think she's really out, she'll open her eyes and nail me with some kind of strange question. What do hedgehogs say? What is 's daddy's name? What is a week?

Interesting the things that keep her ruminating into the night.

***

I've been slowly planting this year's tomatoes over the last week, and intend to get the rest of them into the ground in the next couple days. I've only got ten this year, which is really small for me! Time to downscale a little. I want more of them in the ground and fewer in pots, and I want to leave more room for a few other vegetables this year - I'm keeping a couple of the big pots open for squash and eggplants.

Every year, I plant them and carefully insert the little plastic label stick that came with them into the ground so that I'll know what variety is in each spot. And inevitably, in a month or so, all the plant labels are GONE. G-o-n-e, gone. Where do they go? Do the birds take them for nests? Do squirrels eat them? Does Sofie sneak around and collect them?

Either way, it's frustrating. So this year I've drawn a map in my gardening book and am meticulously labelling each pot with its contents as soon as it's been planted. Take that, birds. I'm onto you this year.

If the crows start moving pots around, I'm calling it quits. 

***

Having a nice mother's day this year, even with Brett gone - definitely better than last year, when Mom had just died a few weeks before. I think my standards for mother's day have been lowered a bit by that experience - just being not completely prostrate with grief is a major improvement.

Sofie celebrated by getting up almost an hour early, and laying in her bed bellowing for me at the top of her lungs because she couldn't walk upstairs all by herself that early in the morning! Arg. So I had to drag myself down there a little before six a.m. and carry her up to my bed where I made her sit and rest for a while before she got to watch a cartoon.

After about fifteen minutes of pseudo-rest, she turned to me and said, "What day is it?"

"Sunday," I mumbled.

A pregnant pause. "Is it... MOTHER'S DAY?" she whispered.

Why yes, yes it is. And so she hopped over to the bedside table to get the present she and Daddy put together for me and we opened it together and it was a really nice moment, especially since she initiated it herself.

***

Sofie keeps telling me that she's a mommy too, then reeling off an incredibly long list of her responsibilities as Little Soft Phoenix's mommy. She's very funny about how seriously she takes her job as his mama - she spends all day feeding him, wrapping him in blankets, laying him down for naps in the stroller, giving him rides on various toys, and, often, celebrating his birthday once or twice a day. Every now and then he grows up and is a big cat for a day, but the next day he's almost inevitably a baby again.

One day I made the mistake of moving him from the couch pillow he was sleeping on, in the process of sweeping up a big pile of her other stuffed cats at the end of the day. She noticed and snatched him up, held him to her chest, and turned to me and Brett, bright red with fury, and shouted at the top of her lungs:

"HE'S NOT A TOY! HE'S MY BABY!"

She was dead serious, but it was so freaking adorable that all we could do was laugh. So now I don't move him when I clean up the others. Which is sometimes a problem as he likes to sleep right in the middle of the furniture. But I've been clearly put in my place on this issue and am attempting to stick to the rules.

Happy Mother's Day to all of my mama friends, and hope everyone has a great day!

Introducing Ned

Brett and I are huge watermelon fanatics. We eat a LOT of watermelon in the summer, and we look forward to the first watermelon of the year for months and months.

This year, we've decided to speed the process along by adopting a watermelon a few months ahead of the real season. His name is Ned.

Isn't he cute?

Truth be told, we had no intention of adopting a watermelon. Brett bought it our first weekend in the cabin, and because we didn't get around to eating it we hauled it back to Seattle with us. We still hadn't eaten it by the next weekend away so we put it back in the car and hauled it up to the cabin again. Didn't eat it, hauled it home.

And then we realized that we'd all but taken on a new member of the family - we were taking a watermelon on vacation, lovingly transporting it over hundreds of miles, keeping it safe from harm. So just as a joke, I drew a face on it.

Only thing is, now we just can't bring ourselves to stab it with a big huge knife and cut it up.

Because it's LOOKING at us and all that. Yaknow?

Brett with the son he never had

Eventually, I'm sure we'll eat it. Perhaps after I black out the eyes.

Wordless Wednesday

One small step for toddlerhood...

Art

Just thought I'd share one of sofie's recent creations - on transparency paper, from school.


The things with pointed ears are cats. One is holding a flower. And I see one mouse (blue) and a bunny (red), and a big smiling sun.

The cat on the far right is pushing a baby stroller with a little toy cat in it.

And there are some "words" in the center, including, I think, the word CAT (backwards).

Isn't she good?

I won a quilt!

On a whim the other day I entered about fifteen giveaways on various quilting blogs, mostly because I found a nice collection of links to them in someone's blog entry.

I never really win anything, so I didn't think much of it, but it turns out that when we got our internet hooked up this weekend I found an email waiting for me that I won a quilt!! Not some fabric, not a pattern, an actual quilt, made by the lovely Teaginny. How cool is that?

It hasn't arrived yet, but here's a pic of my new and very lovely Plume Sails quilt. I can't wait to get it in the mail!

Cuteness

Sofie, peeking through the staircase railing:

Brett make fire.

In the modern world equivalent of making fire from two stones in a dark cave somewhere, Brett has gotten the internet working at the cabin, finally! Woo hoo! He's feeling manly and proud. Providing the web for the family, yep.

Weekend two here has been very nice and quiet. Aside from hanging a coat rack and some curtains and getting a toaster and a few other things there haven't been all that many projects to do. Instead we've frittered away the time dancing and reading and playing and blowing bubbles off the back deck and taking walks. Which is exactly how things should be. Ahhhhhh.
 
Met another neighbor lady who works at a store in town and owns the farmhouse at the end of our development's driveway - again, everyone we meet here is just so nice. Had breakfast today at the awesome Wesola Posana, which is just about a mile from the house and which has amazingly good food. Long conversation with the young gentleman from Mexico City who runs the place. It's interesting the diversity of people who seem to be drawn to this area from all over the world -- for a town that officially numbers 250 fulltime residents, Mazama is a very interesting place.

And look, we have living room furniture!

The reading nook, under the front window.

The living room from above - the nook would be off to the right if this were a wider picture.

Stars

Up at the cabin again. Glanced out our front bedroom window last night around eleven and was astonished at the sky - I've never seen so many stars. It is utterly, utterly dark here at night -- no streetlights, no houselights really from the neighbors, who seem to shut everything off. Just us and pine trees and the Milky Way, flung out across the sky as far as you can see.

Takes your breath away, it does.