Monday, October 31, 2011

Blueberry's 2nd Halloween

I wasn't going to do a costume this year, yet Blueberry ended up with not one, but THREE costumes.

Costume #1

I just recently organized her clothes and fortuitously found this at the back of a drawer just in time for Halloween. Our friend Sally* gave it to her last year, after Halloween, for use during this Halloween, and now it fits her, so this was her first costume of the day. It's a cute costume. How do I know it's a cute costume?  Because it says "cute costume".


Costume #2


I knew from trying the cape on her as I was making it that she was not going to want to be dressed up in a costume, and I was right. It helped a lot that Daddy was enthusiastic about it when he got home from work, and there was just enough light left outside to get some pictures. She tolerated the cape just fine, but did not want to hold the basket of food for Grandma.

Here she is trying to get Daddy to take it off her hands.


Finally rid of that stinking basket:


She was fine with pushing it in the sled, so that's how the basket got on its way to Grandma's house.


In a strange plot twist, she stopped to do some digging. Totally off task. No basket in sight. Never send a 21-month-old to give food to Grandma.


Costume #3

Blueberry came up with this one on her own:



It's quite obviously the asylum doctor from the Eifman ballet "Don Quixote or The Fantasies of a Madman".

I hope your Halloween was terrific!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

News and Photos

What the Spupspes are up to:

This past Friday we bought a new (to us) car. Our Honda Civic is terrific - 40+ mpg, and runs great. But it has only two doors and Hazel was getting tired of squeezing herself in and out of the back seat to get Blueberry in her car seat. Our Chevy truck is also terrific - you can put lots of stuff in it and take the stuff from one place to another. It gets 9 mpg. Or maybe I'm remembering wrong and it's 16. Nine is in the Hummer range and I don't think it's that bad. Let's say the truck gets 9-16 mpg.

So we decided to buy this:

Mazda 2005 MPV LX
6 cylinder with tow package.
109,000 miles
3rd row
New transmission, battery and water pump 2009

And we love it!

Does anyone want a mid-90s white Chevy S10 pickup? Then you can be the truck people. We enjoyed being the truck people for a while.

Here's Blueberry giggling with her friends in the hammock on a recent camping trip:
I love watching her enjoy the company of her peers.

Here she is again, an especially sweet pic taken by my friend Lucy* (as was the above shot). I think this was a couple of months ago. I could photoshop out the graham cracker goop on her chin but I will not.


All is going well with the gestation of Blueberry's brother. 

My friend Kate* visited today and while she played with Blueberry I baked a butterscotch applesauce cake to have with our tea. It was scrumptions. Yes that's a typo but I like how it turns scrumptious into a noun so I'm leaving it. The cake is a perfect way to celebrate fall and it's quick and easy and ready in half an hour.  Here is the recipe. I left out the pecans, raisins, and white sugar and I think it was better this way - still pretty sweet but not overly so. Sorry no photo.

Other news: last night was Blueberry's first night in her toddler bed, which she can get in and out of it as she pleases. It was not an uneventful night - I think we will leave her bedroom door closed from now on so she doesn't wander around the house crying when she wakes up at 3:30 a.m. But for naps, it will be nice for her to be able to wake up and come out to see me rather than call me and wait for me to come get her. She likes her new bed and didn't give me any trouble when it was time to lay down and go to sleep.

Hope you are all 
enjoying your fall.
If not, that's a shame.
This poem is lame.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

First Pics of Peachy

Last week Hazel had her first ultrasound for this pregnancy. Unlike with Blueberry, Peachy gave us a good face and profile view:


Cute, huh? 

The ultrasound tech, like all medical techs I have ever met, said she wasn't allowed to say anything about what she saw, but did anyway. She said Peachy looks older than we thought by 5 weeks. I had suspected all along that this might be the case, due to various things, and stated this to the doctor and her assistant repeatedly, but my doctor was measuring her as due in mid February. So I feel justifiably smug.

We asked the tech to put the boy/girl image in an envelope, and the next day we left Blueberry with some dear friends and went out to breakfast. Stanley opened the envelope and announced that we're having a BOY!!!


That day the doctor left a message saying that everything looks healthy (HOOORAY!!!) and then sounded mildly flabbergasted as she told me the new estimated due date is January 9th. It must be frustrating for her.

Assuming the ultrasound measurements are accurate, I'm happy to have more of the pregnancy over than I thought. I totally skipped my 5th month of pregnancy. Actually heading into the third trimester. Hard to believe. He could even be here for Christmas!

In other news, we're shopping for a car (minivan or station wagon) and it will be so nice to have more space than our 2-door Civic currently offers.

We are all doing well. Hope you are, too! Let me know.