And Happy St. Paddy's Day!

I learned this year that it's offensive to write St. Patty's and am realizing that faux pas is everywhere! It was just Mila and mama today and we were quite the piggies starting with lucky charms for breakfast and ending with slices of a rainbow cake I made. For dinner I made kimchi quesadillas minus the spice--get it? Kimchi...cabbage...Irish...
They were delicious, actually. Leaps and bounds better than the too-sweet cake.

My little leprechaun. She kept me on my painted-green toes today with new words, a sudden new insistence to attempt dressing herself, and refusing to nap. At least she let me have some quiet time where I was able to read a little more of this book (am trying to finish it before watching the movie, waiting patiently in its red envelope). She climbed up onto the chair to sidle in next to me and squeal through a few books herself (new favorites: I Love You Through and Through and You Are My I Love You). She's my heart and soul, this one.

Felt food Friday: Something green...

Sorry this is late (you were at the edge of your seat, weren'tcha?!) but yesterday evening was one of those nights where even the walk into the kitchen to grab the USB cable seemed daunting.

So. Pears! No, not particularly Irish, but none of the tutorials I could find for cabbage or potatoes were calling out to me. Plus Mila loves pears. I don't even think she'd be able to chew up corned beef, despite having a full set of baby teeth minus two (2nd year molars this is not an invitation!).

I just didn't think they would turn out quite so gigantic, especially compared to the other felt food I've made so far. If I did this over, I'd scale down the pattern (found here).
 

Origami birds.

How timely, on the 101st anniversary of Akiro Yoshizawa's birth I'm posting pictures of our revamped origami crane mobile. Somehow this project, made when pregnant with Mila (see original pictures here), found its way to California and transplanted itself in our living room. Now I've added a few colored cranes into the mix but in looking at these pictures...and looking at the all-white one...I think I prefer the latter. I'm such a sucker for that clean and fresh look. Plus it's not like the color white stands a chance if it's anywhere near the ground, so I might as well take advantage of it with the ceiling decor, no?

p.s. I was going to write how Mila never seems to pull on the birds...until I tried to take a picture of the mobile and she came over, yanked on it, and took down 9 or so birds in the process. Well.

p.p.s. Yes. Absolutely. Those are Christmas lights hanging up on our walls. They're staying up there. 

Recent milestones.

*You won't see these in yo mama's baby book ;)

First pickle: February 23rd.
First ferry ride: February 26th. Larkspur to San Franciscooooooooo!
First natural disaster/act of God/what have you: An EARTHQUAKE in the early morning hours of March 5th. (for the record it was Steve's and my first quake as well and unsettling to say the least. Not our first natural disaster though. We are from Florida after all.
First conformity (as Steve put it): March 7th at Lil' Kickers Soccer (complete with uniform! Ohmygosh! Pictures are coming!)
First astroturf experience: March 7th, see above.
First taste of Ethiopian food: March 7th at Cafe Colucci

Introduction to the joy of dunking one's warm cookie in cold milk: March 12th :)

Felt Food Friday: 'Nanas!

How could I make felt food to outfit a play kitchen and not include a banana?!  They were Mila's first word after pa, one day she was with Steve at the grocery store and out of the blue she insistently started pointing and saying "nana nana nana" repeatedly. And that is how nanas came to hold cult status in our house. I made just one for now. For various reasons I've somehow weaned myself off coffee this week so am trying to be extra gentle on myself with more rest, more planning ahead the night before, etc. Hopefully I'm over that hump soon.

Our nature table: spring

I thought I'd share a few pictures of our nature table right now. Hello color! Painted rocks and even the embroidery thread had to join in on the fun. Our nature table is an old Ikea coffee table which I painted with chalkboard paint last year. Here is where I put Mila's many 'treasures' that she finds on our walks...just walking from the front door out to the car often will turn up a few pebbles...twigs...and the like. Just a few months ago for Christmas we had our little wooden Nativity scene there (and of course the figures got moved several times daily by someone with adorably chubby fingers), and now here it is getting close to Easter and there will soon be colored eggs on there (I'm excited to dye eggs with Wugs!). 

wooden eggs in felted nest from apple n amos

18 months old.

Mila reached the 1 1/2 years-old marker last Wednesday. I'm hesitant to describe her--for starters, there's so many layers to her personality across different situations. Sometimes she shyly clings to me and other times she is very much an extrovert, waving to strangers and eating up attention. Sometimes she has a short fuse and her emotions are delicately maneuvered around, and then she looks up at me with those huge sparkling eyes. Smiling eyes. There's that determined set to her mouth when she's concentrating, the furrow in her brow. The way she frantically calls out Mamamamamama from the backseat of the car when getting tired. She toddled around the living room last Sunday while I tried to catch a few more minutes of precious sleep until I felt a little hand patting my side of the bed. Letting me know she wanted up. Then she laid quietly on the pillow next to me, softly chuckling at her little finger puppet book while I suddenly forgot how tired I was and just stared in amazement at this miracle. Her. I made her. And she's me, she's Steve, but she's also her own person.

Which brings me to this: she's still coming into her own, and I want to give her space to do exactly that. Be her own person. No labels. How could I sum her up neatly anyway? I can only describe the experience of raising her. And I do know that when I look at my daughter I see God. This isn't only what being a parent is all about, it's what life is all about.