End of Summer

Hi there, people!  Tomorrow is September - no joke! - which means, meteorological calendars aside, I am declaring an end to summer and the beginning of autumn.  I love the fall.  As a longtime student and sometime teacher, fall has always meant new beginnings and fresh starts to me.  SLB and I got married in early September for this very reason.  September is a breath of fresh air and a chance to start anew.  It makes me think of newly sharpened pencils and possibilities.  In this calendrical and inspirational vein, I'll be starting some new writing projects on and off of this blog soon.  Summer's over, and it's time to hunker down and do something good, dammit.  But, until midnight when I become all virtuous and productive, let's linger over fine summer memories, shall we?

Like that time I took Livy to the Ballard water park, where she proved that a fleece Viking hat is, in fact, all-weather gear.

Pillaging knows no season.

Or that time I rode a mechanical bull in Las Vegas.

In hindsight, the blouson peasant top wasn't my most flattering bull-riding option.  Learn from my example, people.

Or that time I made forty-freaking-eight cupcakes, along with forty-freaking-eight cupcake toppers for Livy's 2nd birthday party.

I'm crafty.  I'm just your type.

Because I have an embarrassing tendency to do dumb things like this in the presence of a camera...

... let's let this sweet picture of Liv and her good friend Margaret stand in for the touching one of Liv and me that never manifested.

Or that time we went to the Oregon coast to play and to Sauvie Island to meet some new friends.

Livy LOVED the beach...

...

...

... until she didn't.

Handsome Baby Jake may be Sauvie Island's newest resident...

... but Livy preferred the goats.

Or the time we saw my boyfriend Steve play at the Snoqualmie Casino.

Flawlessly silver.  Flawlessly foxy.

Or that time I read 9 horny vampire novels in 6 weeks?

So far #9 was the best.

Or that time that Toddlers & Tiaras started making sense.

Bathing, basking belly.

As you can see, it's been a fantastic summer for frolicking and fun.  But my pencils are sharp, the tags are freshly off of my school clothes, and I've got a Trapper Keeper full of fresh college-ruled paper.  Summer's been great, but fall is here, and that's time to shine.

Hippity Hoppity Hippie

Today, in honor of a holiday I find creepier than Halloween, Livy and I joined our friends Sandy, Mike, Gavyn, Katie, Liam, and Ian at the Woodland Park Zoo for some egg huntin' fun.  It wasn't as fun as Buck Hunter, but it was a lot more fun than Rick Hunter, so I call it a success!  Plus how can you go wrong with a day filled with springtime sunshine, goofy toddlers, and good friends at a zoo picnic?

Because I couldn't be bothered to get Livy an Easter dress and instead delegated the responsibility to Bubby, who is an actual Catholic and former altar boy, she went to today's festivities as a hippie clown.  And because we live in Seattle, I spotted 3 other people in tie-dye as soon as we entered the zoo gates.  OF COURSE I DID.

I sure hope these plastic eggs are local and from organically fed cage free heirloom plastic chickens...

She had a good time finding eggs, but maybe it was because of the outfit, she had just as much fun putting them in other kids' baskets as she did in her own bag.

... to each according to his need, and you need another empty plastic egg!

But the best part of the day by far was eating and playing on the grass with her homeboys Gavyn and Liam.  Those three are like adorable and poorly coordinated peas in a pod.

Liam in hat, Gavyn with ball, and Livy.

So, until tomorrow when we hit the south end for a grandparental explosion and a froofy cupcake dress, happy Easter! 

Love SLB,

Easter posies, m'dear?

Livy,

Upside down sunglasses = Geordi La Forge!



And me, Bruce Wayne.

My secret is safe with you, yes?

Buddies!

As we've been slowly shifting the chaos of our new home into order and comfort we've been escaping the pressure of the mess by spending time with our buddies.  Last week we had a big adventure at the Pacific Science Center with some friends from our newborn PEPS group.  We met up with Sandy and Gavyn (Hayndy and Gammin) and Katie and Liam (Tatie and Umum), our old buddies (BUDDIES!) from when the kids were about 2 months old. 

Halloween 2009: Gavyn is the cranky cow, Liam the wise bear, and Livy the chunky one-footed headless monkey (along with Willa the grouchy ladybug and Clara the gleeful pumpkin).

Liam and Livy yuk it up.

Livy and Gavyn holding baby hands.

It's been wonderful watching our kids grow up together and watching each other grow up with our kids.  It's almost impossible to believe that they were once little lumps of babyness now that they're all full-fledged toddlers.  When I first had Livy I'd inwardly roll my eyes when more experienced mothers talked wistfully about their children's infancy being gone in a flash.  Now I'm on the other side of that equation and, sigh, where did our babies go?

Apparently they've gone to the big water table at the Science Center,

Livy was soaked.  Gavyn was EXTRA soaked.  Liam miraculously ended the day dry.

off to control the water-squirty thingie with the serious intensity it deserves and requires,

With great power comes great responsibility.

and into a big, fake helicopter to push buttons with even more focus and intensity.

Pilot Liam and copilot Livy readying their craft for takeoff.  Phantom Mama playing paparazzo.

3 heads are clearly better than 1: Gavyn joins the flight crew and Phantom Sandy joins the photo corps.

Serious business.

They're such good lifelong friends that even this crime of passion was eventually forgiven.  Remember, you always hurt [most] the ones you love [most].

Only one child was harmed in the making of this film.

Katie later told me that Liam woke up during the night after this accident crying "Neenee!  Vivy!  Owie!," but that didn't stop him from loving us again this week when we 6 met up at the zoo for more good times.  Because that's how it is with friends who've become family - you can hurt each other, then laugh together, and sometimes fly helicopters together and love each other through it all.

Buy Yourself This After You Stick a Sock in it.

Hi, folks!  Yes, I am aware that I have been a neglectful blogger.  And, no, I will not be picking up the pace just yet.  We are excited here at Me Show HQ about our upcoming location to a WHOLE NEW HQ.  So posts will be less frequent as we box up our goods and transport them to our new digs a whopping 10 blocks away.  Oh, Ballard!  I just can't quit you!

Until then, suck it up.  Let this be your inspiration.

Follow my lead, plebes!  Get your copy of this poster here.

Or, if you're really desperate for some hot Me Show action, then get your parasitic arse over here and pack a box or two to hasten my return.  We are currently accepting applications for Moving Buddies, so submit yours today!

Abominable Snowbaby!

We here in Sea-town are in the icy grip of what in most cities would be a mild and uninteresting snowfall.  Here, though, in a city filled with hills and generally without any idea what to do with any snow whatsoever it is RUINOUS SNOPOCALYPSE 2010!  Stock up on batteries and canned meats!  Hide your daughters and your jewels!  The end is nigh! 

Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

At least this is what it's like for normal working folks who must drive and function in the stuff.  Livy and I had a great day at home filled with hours of books, blocks, low-speed indoor chases, and 10 minutes of frenzied snow play.  Because Olivia's not walking yet (But she's working on 3-syllable words.  ACT SURPRISED.) and I have no proper cold weather gear for her I expected that she'd hate being out in the snow.  But no!  She is the Shackleton of the toddler set and charged about like a bouncing bumble until her pants soaked through and she started shivering. 

"I seemed to vow to myself that some day I would go to the region of ice and snow and go on and on till I came to one of the poles of the earth, the end of the axis upon which this great round ball turns." - Ernest Shackleton

"Superhuman effort isn't worth a damn unless it achieves results." - E.S.

"We had seen God in His splendors, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man. " - E.S.

"If I had not some strength of will I would make a first class drunkard." - E.S.

Summer of Awesome: Livy's Celebrity Friends!

This summer Livy and I were lucky to enjoy a week of rubbing elbows with famous blogger babies, and boy are we starstruck!

First, we enjoyed a playdate with the star of Dad Solo's fine blog, NJ!

NJ is the cute one with all the hair.  Livy is the other cute one with all the other hair.

It was during this visit that Olivia learned what heaven is: a carpeted, finished basement filled with a friend, that friend's toys, and that friend's dogs.  Luckily NJ is not afraid of delighted shrieking, having perfected the sound during her long career of piercing ears with her auditory happiness, so Livy was welcome to scream joyfully all she liked.  It was also during that visit that Olivia learned what raw fear was as she took one look at Dad Solo, who is much taller and more generously bearded than SLB, clutched my neck, and bawled her eyes out.  She quickly realied that Dad Solo makes a great jungle gym and made friends with his silly self.

Hard at work manning their workstation.

Rudely interrupted.

Performing like trained monkeys.

Later that same week Olivia and I welcomed my old friend Danica and her superstar daughter Audrey, both of Mermaids in the Basement fame, to our humble abode.  Danica and I made friends in high school where we met in a particularly badly taught chemistry class.  We made so much trouble in that class that we were eventually seated as far away from one another as possible, which changed absolutely nothing about our monkeyshines.  One of my favorite high school memories is of us making jokes so crude about a chemistry experiment (the resulting mixture smelled... um... fertile) that we were both kicked out of class.  Instead of reporting to the principal's office (Why would we?), we took refuge in the teachers' lounge with a favorite English teacher who bought us Diet Cokes and visibly enjoyed how pleased we were with ourselves.  We knew we were special - smart witty feminist girls destined for great things and cute hair - with Danica obviously being the more special, smart, witty, and cute because she's a year older.  Because of my decades-long girlcrush on her mother, it was a pleasing equilibrium to see how much Audrey enjoyed the older and wiser Livy.

Here's Audrey, who eagerly appropriated Livy's sippy cup.  Yes, she really is that cute.

Here's Livy.  Of course we color coordinated our daughters.

And here's Audrey sucking on Livy's toes.

See?  That's love.

Livy and I are so lucky and blessed to have such wonderful friends who still agree to take our calls even though they're all bloggy-famous.  We love them now, and we're pleased to say that we knew them when!

Summer of Awesome: The Theat-ah

Given that today is the first day of autumn, it's high time I recapped the end of the Summer of Awesome.  It's been a busy couple of months, and it's difficult to muster the determination to chronicle our life when we're so busy living it.  Rest assured, friends and voyeurs, that an onslaught of summery goodness is fast approaching to ease you into fall.  It's one of the many services we provide here at Me Show, Inc.

Two of the ladies from our bookgroup and I took our little girls to see The Green Sheep at The Seattle Children's Theater a few weeks back.  I found an advertisement for it in Parent Map and was intrigued by the idea of a play for toddlers, especially since all of my assumptions about the toddler-focused symphony were so far off.  Livy and I read the book on which the play is based a week before going to see th how, and I was really curious to see how on earth the SCT was going to transform a short toddler book into a half hour show.  It was really well done, though.  The play was a lively mix of music, puppetry, and storytelling wherein all of the parents and littles sat in a carpeted and fenced "pen" while actors used wooden cutouts, musical instruments, and silky swaths of fabric to tell the story around the pen.  If you have a little one in Seattle, I highly recommend the show.  Olivia was silently grinning and completely entranced for the entire perfomance, and the creativity and dedication to a craft I'd never imagined - baby theater - was inspiring.  It made me want to immediately drop what I was doing and become a puppeteer, definitely a sign of a great show.

After the show was over theater-goers were welcome to wander the pen, touch the wooden puppets, play musical instruments, hear a reading of the story all over again, and pet the elusive green sheep.  Livy couldn't get enough of all the action.  She kept her stunned and amazed look while frantically crawling all around the stage.

Dude, Mama, have you seen this place?

It's BLOWING MY MIND!

Good talking to you... Gotta go!

After the show we hung out in the lobby as each mama took a turn going to the restroom as the other mamas watched her daughter (Childfree folks, you'd never imagine the luxury of peeing solo.  Parents, can I get an amen?).  While there we found an enormous chair.  Hijinks ensued.

I can see my house from here!

All in all, it was a fantastic outing.  Great show, great play time, great babies, great mamas.  Hurrah!

Summer of Awesome: Independence Day Edition

Yes, yes, I know it's well past the 4th of July.  But better late than never, right?  Right!  Let's go!

This 4th of July marked two firsts:  Livy's first Independence Day and Livy's participation in her first parade.  Usually I hate parades - I find them boring to watch live, and I find sitting and standing in huge crowds for long periods of time irritating.  But walking in a parade is a different story.  This is my 3rd, and the attention plus the perambulation equals pure Me Show joy!  I like people looking at me!  I like walking and waving!  I LIKE PEOPLE LOOKING AT ME WHILE I WALK AND WAVE!  Luckily for her, so does Olivia.

The parade was a little Mayberry-type affair in my aunt, uncle, and cousins' neighborhood in Puyallup (pronounced pyoo-AL-up, regardless of the Morah's insistence on saying POY-uhl-up).

Cousins on parade!

Here we are preparing for our daring march.  Clockwise from left, that's David, Emily, me, Hannah, and Livy.  Emily was thrilled to spend the day with her little cousin, and Hannah was glad to see us both.  David just wanted to hear me belch like a dyspeptic trucker and make fart jokes.  I didn't disappoint.

I'll kill you for this one day, Mommy.

You like that pimped out patriotic baby-and-stroller combo?  Of course you do!  I had the outfit planned for weeks, down to the ludicrous hair bow, and Hannah and I went nuts with the crepe paper.  As we were taping streamers to the stroller, Hannah told me to taste the crepe paper.  I'm an idiot, so I did.  It's really salty, a fact that Olivia enjoyed as she tried again and again to devour her decorations.

We were led by an antique fire truck filled with happy patriots.

Emily and Livy got tired of the parade at roughly the same time.  It was a longer walk than any of us bargained for.

We were all grateful to retire to the community picnic.  Here beautiful Hannah holds Livy, who enjoyed holding the gluten-free hotdogs more than anyone should.

Then we returned to Aunt Katie and Uncle Kirk's house where Olivia enjoyed the playful mauling of a huge monkey named Stripes while Uncle Kirk sneaked a snuggle.

Livy may have SLB's face, but HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, does she ever have Uncle Kirks huge, melon-like noggin.

It's hard to say whether she's a fan of the Elmo puppet Emily gave her or not.  It's easy to say that she loves gnawing on his eyeballs like a ravenous vulture.

It was a great celebration, and I'm already planning on upping the ante for next year.  We'll throw candy!  We'll add glittery streamers and pompoms!  We'll all dress like Uncle Sam!  Beware, pyoo-AL-up, we've got 11 months to plan, and we mean business!