Maeve is napping. SUCCESS! And I don't want to wake her up by cleaning (duh!) so I have to do something relatively quiet for the next few minutes until she's up.

Hmmm. What should that be??

So, I'm here. Hello, out there!

Not a whole lot is going on today. Ok, that's not true. I scored big in the Frugal Department and I'm just a little bit stoked about it. First, I found a small two-drawer file cabinet on Craigslist. It's yellow. YELLOW. Total awesomeness. So, in addition to getting organized in that 'we should have done this 2 months after we were married, not two years' kind of way, we now have the coooooolest file cabinet/end table you could want. I'll post pics once it has settled in to its new home.

Secondly, while at the grocery store I perused the rotting fruit/veg section. Maybe "rotting" is the wrong term. But as far as the store is concerned it is a) less than perfect b) decomposing at an accelerated rate so c) you better cook this shizzle today if you plan to actually ingest it.

This is my new favorite game. I love the "reduced for quick sale" fruits and vegetables. I try new things and get to experiment for half the price. I also buy things that I love and was probably going to buy anyway. Like, bell peppers. There seems like there are always bell peppers in the reduced section. I'll put peppers in just about anything these days. Hell, I cooked my hubby a carrot cake for his birthday. Vegetables....in a CAKE. Not so long ago that might have been a dealbreaker for me. But this is love. We do crazy things for love. Like bake vegetables in a cake.

But I digress. Here is my bounty: I found 1 lb of basil for $1.00. You know those little packs that are like 3.99? I got like 4 of them for a buck! INSANE!!! Now, at the moment, I do not have a reliable blender so pesto was out. (Also, FYI: pine nuts are super expensive. Who knew?) I had to get my creative juices flowing because everywhere I looked I found pesto recipes. But I finally found some yummy alternatives. Basil Butter, for instance (Think garlic bread or an awesome char-grilled steak!). And Basil Strawberry margaritas. Yes, please!

So, that is pretty much the height of my week. After starting it off by finding out I didn't get a job I'd interviewed for, things perked up. And to celebrate, I will be having a delicious Basil Strawberry Margarita. I hope happy hour comes your way soon, too! Happy Weekend :)

ps: here's the marg recipe, if you're interested: Strawberry Basil Margaritas

Sooooo, its been a while. Things got a little crazy for us in the Spring. Enough said.

I'm sitting here listening to Maeve not nap. She's alternately groaning and moaning and cooing and jumping in her bed. In the face of this, I was thinking about all the remarkable things she is doing lately. Here is a short, and in my biased opinion, AMAZING list:

1) She does animal sounds. Like, a LOT of animal sounds. In fact, she is making them from her bedroom right. NOW. Sigh. She can do a bear, lion, owl, dog, bird, sheep, cow, and occasionally a monkey. The monkey is a little dicey and mostly consists of her screeching. But, you know, its monkey-like.

2) She signs like a sass-pot (how in the WORLD do you spell sasspot?). When she wants "more" and we're slow about dishing it out, we get the slowed down hand slam of a "more" sign with an accompanying angry stare. Soooooo much personality in this one. She also does "hungry", "milk", "bread", "cheese", "strawberry", "bath", "all done".  It's amazing how fast she picks up the signs for things she likes, as you can see from her list.

3) She's working really hard on speaking. She has been saying what sounded like "goo doy goo doy" over and over again for literally months. What I've figured out is that this - her first word! - is meant to be "good girl." Do you think that says anything about my parenting?? Maybe I'm a little heavy on the positive reinforcement. Yeahhhhh. She is also saying "duck" at bath time and she's working on "all done." And of course, "mama" and "dada." So, for anyone who thought the signing was a bad idea (let's just say I've gotten feedback about it and in some cases it was from COMPLETE strangers) Maeve is a brilliant little being who can talk AND communicate.

And not nap. For serious? I guess we're going to call that an hour of "quiet time" that wasn't so quiet. Guess I'm showering later. Duty calls!

My cutie pah-tootie

How DO you spell that? Cutie patooty? Cutie Patewtie? Does pah-tootie qualify as onomonopeia? These are the questions my mind wrangles with on a daily basis.

But that's not really the point I'm trying to make. Sorry to distract you from...the bragging I'm really on here to do. I made Maeve a hat. See image to the right. See the image, but don't believe it. Maeve is a pro at taking it off. It took two adults and about 12 attempts before we got this winner of a shot.

Soak in the joy. Even if she doesn't like my hat, she is pretty freaking adorable.

Eddie Munster Look Alike Contest

Happy Halloween (Early). Not sure who all will get this reference, but the similarities are undeniable. Eddie Munster, meet my Maevie Monster!

Guess What?

Guess What? Chicken Butt. Yep, I got you. How'd that make you feel? A little dumb, a little silly? Well, welcome to last night at 3am.

It was dark and cozy under the sheets. I'm a side sleeper and I was flipping over when I heard an enthusiastic voice next to me ask, "Guess what?"

Guess what? Um it's 3am, that's what. I don't know! Why are you making me guess something in the middle of the night!? Seriously, what could I possibly need to know right now? And how am I supposed to guess it without any pretext?

Now might be a good time to tell you that my husband is a sleep-talker. He has said a wide variety of things in his sleep. These include: "Golf!" and "adopt a baby" (during my pregnancy). So, it occured to me that he might be sleeping. But what if he wasn't? He was pretty articulate....

About ten seconds passed since the original question was asked, so I answered, "What?" And then I wait.

And I wait.

And I wait. No answer. Nada. He's out cold. (How does he do that!?) He was totally asleep! And I felt a little dumb and a little silly for answering. But it does make you want to try it out, doesn't it? Just to mess with your partner a little bit...

Last words

Have you ever thought about what your last words to someone would be if you never saw them again? This thought occurs to me periodically. After a deluge of rain makes driving somewhat perilous, I wonder what if I don't make it home? What will be the last thing I said to Scott, to my parents, my siblings, my friends?

Most people depart for work or the store, etc by saying "I love you" or "See you later" or "Have a good one" or even "Take Care." The other morning, I had a different goodbye experience. Let me paint you a picture...

It's a grey morning, some remnant fog is still hanging in the air. Scott is scurrying around our apartment getting the last of his things into his bag for school. We have a brief kiss, a "love you! have a good day. I'll see you tonight" exchange. Maeve and I stand on the porch since it is warm out and watch him hop into the car. Then...he pulls a k-turn. School is now in the opposite direction. He rolls the window down (okay, he powers the window down. I mean who "rolls" anymore, right?) and yells out to me,

"Look at this bird poop! What the hell is wrong with this bird? He must have had avian diarrhea. Sheesh."

And up the window goes. And off he drives. I puzzle as his tail lights disappear. I certainly hope this romantic sentiment is not the last thing that will be said between us. These words, regardless, may live in infamy. Thank you ever so much for sharing, darling. I will love you forever, too.

Blog FAIL

Sigh.

I haven't written anything since August 16th. I wish I could say I have been exceedingly busy, but honestly, I just put it on my procrastination list. I made some dinners, visited with some friends, did the laundry, changed a LOT of diapers. I found lots of things to do to avoid writing. And thus, here we are. How am I ever going to write a novel!?

Well, my short reflection for the day is about Maeve (shocker). Scott and I have decided that living with her is like living with a raccoon. She chews on everything, tears any piece of paper she can find into a thousand pieces, knocks things over, chews on wires (or attempts to anyway) and God help us if we try to have a quiet cuddle moment. Those fierce feet are kicking whatever they can make contact with and her hands generally use our faces - and particularly my ears for whatever reason - as handles to climb up on our heads. She is on the verge of crawling, truly on the very cusp, and then we, the Raccoon Ranglers are really in trouble.