look who it is

this blog has been hijacked by Lady P and I intend to give an account of my experience with/and leading up to, rice cereal.

1. As you may have assumed I have been on a very strict liquid diet for the past 5ish months and let me tell you liquid diets aren't for everyone. People (I won't mention names) cook upwards of three meals a day of cereal, sandwiches, pizza, steaks!!! But do I get any....NO!! They like to make me think that it's because I'm lacking in the teeth department but lets keep it real, I would gum a steak to death.

2. The next step was to lay the groundwork for my foray into food. I did this by constantly gnawing on my hands whenever my parents were eating. This combined with a steady stream of drool and a little glassy eye did just the trick. Well let's be honest it took them a minute to put it all together (they may be teachers but sometimes I wonder). Needless to say, I was ready, the date was set.

3. Apparently a utensil was needed, I was given one purely for photographic purposes. I would not be allowed to drive.

4. I was nervous. What if it tasted like rotten oysters? and what do oysters even taste like?

5. It was pleasant, in a milky sort of way. My review: it was not horrible, must try again!!

6. However, it definitely was no steak!!

if you haven't already heard

my little terror

Dear Miss K,

You my dear have recently taken up tantrums. Yelling, head-flinging, crying like you lost a limb, almost ten month old tantrums. It's kind of hard to take you seriously when you have those two little vampire teeth up top, and when the legs that you're so adamantly kicking have the cutest little rolls on them. Please know that I understand how inviting the...stairs, trash can, recycling bin, toilet and dishwasher are. They are new and amazing...I get that. I also know that you really don't understand me when I say "NO," is that why you smile? Do you secretly understand what I'm saying?

You're strong-willed like your parents. You have your dad's sense of adventure and your mom's enthusiasm for mocking people. We get to see it all on a daily basis. However, there is something I want you to know: every once in awhile there is a tantrum that is so epic or a day that is so tiring that I just have to take a breath and close my eyes. When I do this I'm not cursing you under my breath, I'm not wishing I was on a beach somewhere in Tahiti (well, maybe), and I am never ever ever angry at you. When I close my eyes I think of those little chubby legs, those sweet little vampire teeth, how your daddy makes you crack up by flying you around the living room, how thankful I am that, tantrums and all, I'm your momma.

When I open my eyes and you're looking at me like "how dare you zone out in the middle of this epic display of tantrumdom," I have to laugh.

We're in this together little one, rain or shine.

Love,

Momma

lazy days are here again

and by lazy of course i mean incredibly hectic, amazingly crazy days are here!! that is at least for the next few months. We have a lot of business to cross off our increasingly long list of things to do, including, but not limited to chopping my hair off on thursday!! I have been contemplating this for awhile and have actually backed out of a couple of appointments due to cold feet but in a couple days there will be no running. I gave my hair stylist permission to hunt me down and drag me in kicking and screaming.

Also ushering in this season of change was some beautiful weather this weekend. Now if only all of May could look like the first day with its perfect cornsilk blue skies and the smell of barbecue wafting through the streets. Unfortunately, the sun likes to play hard to get here in the northwest and after a wonderful weekend it won't be calling again til Wednesday. Luckily we were able to take advantage...

Happy Monday Friends!!

there's alot of this going on

Poor baby...four teeth at once is no fun. Don't worry she's not self-medicating.

i am the biggest dork in the land

Up until this past weekend the longest amount of time I spent away from Miss K was to go to a football game up in Seattle. However, this weekend I was gone twelve hours on both Saturday and Sunday and I have to say...It was awesome. Although I missed my munchkin terribly I had an amazing time at The Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators Annual Conference. The weekend was filled with good food, great feedback, and amazing speakers. The conference also afforded me the opportunity to geek-out when meeting Holly Black (for those not hip to YA or children's lit, she wrote The Spiderwick Chronicles). Here's me looking like a tool...

I don't know why I always squint like that!! Anyway, she gave a wonderful keynote address along with Dan Santat and E. Lockhart.

I also had the opportunity to get some great feedback regarding Swept, come away with a lot of new ideas for other projects and most importantly I was able to meet, in person, several of the agents I plan to submit to early this summer.

Whew!! I was exhausted by the time it was all over but so incredibly excited.

i'm off to start revisions:)

portlandia and the fam

So as previously mentioned birthday week was capped off by a little trip down to Portland where we arrived bearing gifts...

The Mr. and I are notorious for showing up with junk food, a habit that my family both loves and hates equally. This dozen contained doughnuts (obviously) covered in everything from crushed up Butterfingers, purple Koolaid and my personal favorite Captain Crunch. They're just lucky that I didn't bring a box full of maple bars with bacon (a specialty at Voodoo Doughnut).

We had such a good time visiting the family and I was super excited to see my nieces who are getting so big, FAST! We got a chance to go to dinner with the whole posse and Miss K got loved on the whole time.

We generally don't get to go and visit as much as we'd like considering they're only a couple hours a way but it's always a blast when we do. The funny thing is we typically don't do very much when we do head down, more often than not we all end up in my parents room piled onto their California king-sized bed talking about the weird t.v. shows my dad watches and stealing gummy bears. Maybe that's why I enjoy myself so much, there's never an agenda. We sit and talk about everything from what our hopes and plans are to how M. Night Shyamalan butchered The Last Airbender and whether or not that is forgivable. My sister's and I migrate in and out of the room, now chasing after babies of our own and Mr. Awesome leans against the dresser and throws his two-cents in too. The dogs even congregate in the room. It's one of my favorite things about going to visit.

On Friday my sister, her boyfriend, Mr. Awesome and I all headed out to the movies sans babies and when we returned both our little girls were passed out, having worn themselves out, in between their NaNa and Grandpa on that bed that I love so much:) I think that's just awesome.