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Her Style

We’re all prepared for Christmas, with the exception of ONE very, very difficult person to shop for. We’re simply stuck and have ZERO ideas. Other than that, I think we’re pretty excited for the coming events. Linda sent Maggie some Reindeer Dust and we’re planning on sprinkling some on Christmas Eve. Maggie won’t really care or have an idea of what we’re doing, but I have no doubt that she’ll like throwing the stuff outside.

I’ve been feeling myself cranking the Christmas tunes (side note: have you heard the Lower Lights Christmas album? Cjane has heavily promoted it, and we got it. LOVE it. Find it here.) a bit louder and staring at our tree with a bit more feeling of excitement than in years past. I think it must be having a child in the house that is interested in the presents and Santa, or at least pictures of him. We wrapped a present for my dad that Maggie really, really liked and she keeps going and finding it under the tree, shaking it and saying ”Ampa, ________” (I had to put the blank there in case he reads it and then it won’t be a surprise, but I’m pretty sure that he’ll have to open that present FIRST this year.

We’ve been asking Maggie to get her vest on when we’re ready to leave and she totally does it, but it is almost always upside down. The first time she did it we zipped it up (or is it down) and went happily on our way. That night we ended up going out to sushi and Barry had to conceal our laughter when she crammed a bunch of sushi in without hesitating around the big collar of the upside down vest. Since then, I’ve just decided to go with it and every so often we’ll get some weird looks, but I’m secretly really proud that she’s getting her clothes on.  Because the alternative is this:

I’m thinking that it might not be socially acceptable for her to ride along in the ‘Beep Beep Car’ at the grocery store or pick out books at the library without any clothes on. You know? So we’re encouraging her in her fashion endeavors. She NEVER wants help and is very determined.

It isn’t clear who she gets her fashion sense from? Barry? Me? Clearly we had a little help, right? There is no way that I could have buckled my shoes with my chubby feet. And Barry getting his collar to perfectly fan out?

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Paint, Pants & Boots

 


This past summer when I wanted to paint my toe nails and it just was not going to happen with Maggie crawling all over me. Instead of shoving the nail polish back in the cupboard where it tends to gather dust, I plopped Maggie into her Bumbo that we keep on the bathroom counter and painted her little piggies. She loved it and I have to admit that her toes looked really cute painted.

I never really thought that I’d be THAT mother, pampering and painting our nails together, but now it has become a ritual…and she’s gotten really good at blowing on her toes while we wait for them to dry. Last night I was at book group and my friend Betsy was talking about her grand-niece that is a little older than Maggie that paints her own nails. I’m not sure that I’m ready to go down that road with Maggie. But to be honest I’m pretty certain that Maggie would be able to do just as good of job or even better. Nobody has ever called me an artist.

That day of Maggie wanting to do everything herself is fast approaching. Just this morning while we got ready to take Sydney on a walk, she worked for at least 15 minutes to put on pants. She put them on and took them off no fewer than 4 times and by the time she did get them on, they were backwards. I was more interested in getting outside for our walk, so I kept that tidbit to myself. When I asked her if she’d like to put her boots on, she gave a  hearty ‘yes!’ and headed off to find her almost too small pink cowgirl boots. Thankfully it doesn’t take near as long for her to slide her piggies into those boots.

But really, I mostly notice how much of a sponge she really is. She likes to read books in the car and depending on the book, I can tell she’s really trying to emulate the words or, in Frosty’s case, the song. She really likes the part when Frosty runs away.

My, how we’ve evolved. I’ve been working on her one year photo book (I know, she’s getting closer to 2) and I am astounded at how little she really was.  She seems so grown up now, nails painted, backwards pants and all. Remember when she was just a nugget in our arms?

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The Day Barry Swam With The Sharks

A few weeks before we left for Carmel, Barry signed up for  a swimming race in San Francisco that was called The Shark Swim or something scary like that. Barry loves water and loves training for races and we were going to be so close to SF at the time, so it seemed like a perfect fit.  Plus, who doesn’t want to swim with the sharks that live in San Francisco Bay? The weeks leading up to our departure we’d have different people joke with us about Barry REALLY swimming with the sharks and we’d laugh it off because of course he wasn’t REALLY going to be doing crawl stroke next to a shark….or at least we both nervously hoped he wouldn’t.

But like I said, the man loves to train and he equally loves the water and so he happily went along with swimming a few days a week and talking about his times and worrying about the water temperatures in San Franscisco compared to his swims in the pool and Martha Lake at home. It was all a perfect plan, until we actually got to Carmel. Our car ride down was a bit traumatic (with all the puke and screaming) and the idea of trying to manuever around the city, which was actually a couple hours away, just didn’t seem like such a perfect plan. Ultimately, we decided to abandon the Shark Swim for more low-key activities and fewer hours in the car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of those activities included Barry renting a SUP board and paddling around Monterey Bay. We had a bit of confusion about where exactly he was paddling to and I had a a few freak-out moments when I couldn’t find him ANYWHERE on the horizon. Apparently he found out where the boundary was and paddled to the edge of it, a couple miles away from our quaint little beach. I should have guessed that he’d paddle to the boundary…..why not, right?

But it turned out that Barry did indeed swim with the sharks because not two days after we got home did we hear in the news (well actually first from my dad) that a surfer’s arm and board had been bitten by a shark EXACTLY WHERE BARRY HAD BEEN PADDLING.  Click HERE for the scary details.

Training for a race and a love for water aside, I am just glad that Barry had some safe water time that didn’t involve a shark.